Making A Difference

Dam Up The Fury

Fearing floods and dislocation, small Pak provinces are protesting a big dam that benefits Punjab. Islamabad is unmoved.

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Dam Up The Fury
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For long in Pakistan, Punjab has been accused of cornering economic resources and dominating the country's polity at the expense of Sindh, the North West Frontier Province and Balochistan. This simmering discontent in the three provinces against Punjab has now spilled out onto the streets as throngs of angry non-Punjabi citizens protest against President Pervez Musharraf's recent decision to build the controversial Kalabagh dam, 100 km southwest of Islamabad.

To be constructed on the Indus river in the Mianwali district of Punjab, the proposed 260-feet-high Kalabagh dam has stoked fears in the three other federating provinces that the hydro project could flood their lands, dislocate people and cause acute water shortages. And this time around, they are not willing to countenance Punjab's 'colonial' contempt for—and exploitation of—the three smaller provinces.

The popular anger against Punjab's domination has brought back those dark memories of 1971. As former prime minister Benazir Bhutto said in Dubai, "Presently, the military establishment is following the (dictum) that the rule of might is right.... Prior to this, another military dictator had treaded the same path: of imposing the minority will on the majority that finally led to the dismemberment of East Pakistan." Similarly, NWFP chief minister Akram Durrani said the Kalabagh dam "literally endangers the federation of Pakistan".

Musharraf and his government have been stubbornly pointing to the advantages of building the dam. For the last 55 years, they claim, Pakistan has allowed 35 million acre feet (MAF) to flow down the ocean every year. This figure is expected to balloon by another 10 MAF due to reduced storage caused by the silting of Tarbela, Mangla and Chashma dams. With a proposed storage capacity of 79 million MAF, they claim the Kalabagh dam would not only compensate the loss of river water but also enhance enhance substantially the acreage under irrigation and control floods. The dam is also expected to generate hydro-power, meet Pakistan's growing energy needs, and reduce its dependence on imported fuels.

Yet, such arguments failed to convince the other three provinces into supporting the dam proposal each time it was mooted—first by the Zia-ul-Haq regime in the 1980s and then by Nawaz Sharif in June '98. On both occasions, the uproar in the NWFP, Sindh and Balochistan—their legislative assemblies even passed a resolution against the dam—forced the government to rescind the decision. As for Musharraf, he initially moved cautiously, promising in 2000 that the Kalabagh dam would be constructed after evolving a nationwide consensus on the issue. Early December 2005, he did an about-turn and announced he had in principle taken the decision to construct the dam.

The anti-dam lobby in the NWFP, however, says the Kalabagh reservoir would inundate large tracts of fertile land in the Mardan and Nowshera regions and expose the city of Nowshera to the danger of floods. They say the dam would also impact adversely on the natural drainage system of surrounding areas and cause waterlogging and salinity. The opponents from Sindh argue the reservoir would cause irreparable damage to the ecosystem of the Indus delta region and deprive the province of its fair share of the river water. Benazir maintains that the dam would turn Sindh into a desert. "Sindh is not opposed to any step needed for the good of the country. It is only opposed to the Kalabagh dam from where water will be stolen through canals to irrigate Punjab at the cost of Sindh," she said.

The proposed dam does not directly impact on Balochistan. Yet, it has chosen to oppose the dam to counter Punjab's quest for domination. Its empathy for Sindh and the NWFP arises from its own experience: it does not have access to its own gas reserves which are exploited to meet the needs of other parts of the country. Balochistan has increasingly become anti-Musharraf, outraged by the army crackdown on the militant Baloch movement which is said to have been the inspiration behind several incidents of sabotage of gas pipelines.

But Musharraf is dismissive of the concerns of smaller provinces, claiming he "won't let them commit suicide. The smaller provinces have turned a purely technical issue into a political one after being instigated by some vested interests who are spreading baseless information on the issue." He is convinced the dam is vital for Pakistan's future energy needs. "If we don't have a dam soon, we will be damned. Consensus or no consensus, the Kalabagh dam will be built at all costs," he declared recently in Sindh. Musharraf then went on to highlight Kalabagh's importance for Punjab. Asked about the danger of a future government in the post-Musharraf era stopping the dam midway, the president declared, "That won't happen because Punjab would topple any government that tried to do that."

The political class of Sindh latched on to Musharraf's "impolitic" statement to rail against Punjab. As Sindh nationalist leader Rasool Bux Palejo remarked, "Punjab and the Punjabi Pakistan Army are on one side and the rest of Pakistan on the other side on the issue."

Tehrik-e-Insaaf chief Imran Khan says Pakistan desperately needs efficient water management and cheap electricity. But the solution lies in building small dams, he says, adding it's vital to tackle the contentious Kalabagh issue expeditiously. He cautions, "Instead of building big-nation chauvinism in Punjab and massive reaction in the smaller provinces, the issue should be resolved with the agreement of the upper and lower riparian provinces. Whatever the case, this will decide the future of the dams and, above all, the federation. And we must keep the federation above any damn dam."

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