SUKKUR, Dec 22: President General Pervez Musharraf said here on Thursday that if work on new dams was not taken up now, a process of desertification would start in Sindh after 2010.

The president said he had launched a mass contact campaign to make the people of Sindh realize the gravity of the situation and the need to build new reservoirs.

He stressed the need for consensus on the issue and said that reservations of Sindh would be removed.

He said that due to sedimentation in Tarbela and Mangla reservoirs, water resources of the country were depleting fast and, therefore, construction of new dams had become essential.

The president was addressing representatives of growers, nazims, councillors and members of the national and provincial assemblies from Sukkur, Shikarpur, Khairpur, Naushahro Feroze, Ghotki, Kashmore, Qambar-Shahdadkot, Larkana, Jacobabad and Nawabshah districts at the Sukkur airport as part of his mass contact programme.

He said his campaign was not confined to any particular dam; he was working for more dams and for formulating a national water policy under which large- and medium- water reservoirs could be built to meet the country’s future agriculture needs.

He said the issue would be discussed in the National Assembly and relevant reports would be published in Urdu, Sindhi, English and Pashto for eliciting public opinion and educating people about merit and demerits of dams. He said the issue could also be discussed in Senate and it could even be taken up at the level of judiciary.

Gen Musharraf said that keeping in view the sensitivity of the matter, he had come to directly contact the people of Sindh to tell them about the importance of water reservoirs. He said a decision on the dam would be taken after taking the people of Sindh into confidence. He said he would go to the last extent to address their ‘genuine’ reservations.

He maintained that new dams would bring more than 30 million acres of land under cultivation and strengthen the economy. He said dams were vital for Pakistan’s survival. “Any delay in a decision on dams will be suicidal for us,” he observed.

He said that a detailed designing and feasibility report of the Kalabagh dam had been completed and if work was started on the project in 2006 it would be completed in 2012.

He said the government could provide judicial and constitutional guarantees with regard to distribution of water from the dam. Institutions of parliament, judiciary and the executive could be put in action for taking such decisions and to protect the interests of Sindh, he added.

About Bhasha, Akhori and Katzara dams, the president said these were likely to be completed in 2016, 2014, 2019, respectively, and completion of the dams along with Kalabagh by 2020 would mean that the country would have 20MAF (million acre feet) of water to meet its agriculture needs.

He said the Kalabagh dam could store monsoon flows and additional flows coming from the Kabul, Chitral, Swat, Soan and Haro rivers and added that it was the only project ready for implementation. He said there were also the problem of an access road to Bhasha and some 350km road would have to be built for the purpose. He maintained that the Bhasha dam site was away from the monsoon belt and, therefore, from the feasibility point of view, Kalabagh was the most suitable site for building a dam.

Answering a question, he said it could be ensured that no canals were taken out from the Kalabagh dam and that it remained a storage reservoir.

The president also addressed journalists.

He asked the Sindh media to play its role in a positive way to educate the people of the province on the issue. He said the Kalabagh dam would bring more benefits and prosperity to Sindh than other provinces. He said he was aware that the people of Sindh had some very genuine reservations about dams, especially the Kalabagh. He said he wanted to speak to them with an open mind.

The president said the government planned to build a barrage at Sehwan which would have five canals, but work on the Rs100 billion project had been delayed because there was no water available in the absence of a dam.

He said all nine members of the technical committee, including its chairman A.N.G. Abbasi, had agreed on building major reservoirs. Eight of them had supported construction of the Kalabagh dam on the condition that no canal was taken out of it, he added.

Sindh Governor Dr Ishratul Ibad, Chief Minister Dr Arbab Ghulam Rahimi and other officials were also present.

APP adds: President Musharraf held in Karachi an important interaction with people of different shades of opinion on the issue of water reservoirs.

The meeting, held under the aegis of the Sindhi TV channel KTN, was also attended by the president of the Sindh Chamber of Agriculture, Syed Qamruzzaman Shah, who discussed the issue in detail vis-a-vis reservations of the people of Sindh, lack of trust and misgivings.

Without expressing opposition to the need for construction of more water reservoirs in the country, Mr Shah suggested to the president that construction of Bhasha and Kalabagh Dams should be taken up simultaneously.

A number of other participants also expressed their views on the issue.

They included former president Farooq Ahmed Khan Leghari, Senate Chairman Mohammedmian Soomro, Chief Minister Dr Arbab Ghulam Rahim, federal ministers Ghous Bux Mahar and Abdul Hafeez Shaikh, Sindh former minister Imtiaz Ahmed Shaikh, Provincial Coordination Minister Dr Sohrab Sarki, Sindh Minister for Mines Irfanullah Marwat, noted intellectual Hameed Sindhi, convener of Parliamentary Committee on Water Reservoirs, Senator Nisar Ahmed Memon, prominent industrialist Zubair Motiwala and Sindh Assembly Deputy Speaker Rahila Tiwana.

President Musharraf said he could have easily wriggled out of this issue, but being a Sindhi he had taken it up in the larger interest of Pakistan and especially Sindh. He pointed out that in the past this issue had been politicized so much that it had hardened people’s stand.