Need to convince Sindh on Kala Bag Dam: Imran Khan

Although he is not the first prime minister to believe that Kala Bag Dam is a very good site for water storage, Imran Khan thinks the people of Sindh should believe this dam would not affect the province.
While addressing as chief guest at an International Symposium on Hydropower Development in Pakistan the premier said that China has constructed 5,000 dams, but Pakistan had built only two dams in 1960.
The prime minister said that there is no doubt that the country needed water storage and the Kalabagh dam is at a very good site for this purpose. However, there is a need to convince the people of Sindh on the Kalabagh dam that its construction would not have any adverse impact on Sindh’s water.
Prime Minister Imran Khan deplored that the country has suffered huge economic loss owing to the negligence of not constructing water dams.
The prime minister added that due to this negligence, the country suffered losses because when fuel prices increase in the international market, the price of electricity and other things also increases in Pakistan. Consequently, the people have to bear the burden, he added. The prime minister said that there is inflation in the country because the hike in the prices of electricity increases the cost of everything. “If the country would have been making electricity through water – hydropower – there would not have been inflation of this level.”
He said that unfortunately, this was happening because of the absence of long-term planning. He said the long-term planning of China is behind its economic strength. He said that his government’s planning was not election specific but was about long-term for the benefit of the country and this has been the precise reason that a “decade of dams” is being celebrated. He said that the present government considered that the country needed water storage to meet the needs of the growing population. “We have to cultivate more land and water storage is critical for it.”
The premier said that there is huge land in DI Khan besides hundreds of thousand-acre barren land in Balochistan. He said that ‘10-year dams’ would double the water storage and help cultivate the barren land besides dealing with climate change issues by producing clean energy through water.
“We are also producing cadres of engineering,” he said, adding that tunnel technology is very important for the promotion of tourism. He said that Switzerland has made its mountain accessible for tourism through tunnel technology.