SWABI, Jan 14: President Gen Pervez Musharraf said on Saturday that the construction of new water reservoirs was a ‘matter of life and death’ for the country as these were vital for sustainable economic growth.

President Musharraf was addressing a public meeting at Swabi Cricket Stadium in connection with his mass contact campaign to make people realise the gravity of the situation and the need to build new reservoirs.

“Those who are opposing new dams are not interested in progress and development of the country. Those who are provoking people against new reservoirs are interested only in achieving their own political objectives,” he said.

“The construction of new reservoirs is vital for Pakistan’s survival and any delay will be suicidal act.”

He said Bhasha and Kalabagh dams both would be constructed, but added that he would decide which dam should be constructed first and which later.

However, he argued that Bhasha dam was away from monsoon rains and would get water from the glacier, whereas from the feasibility point of view Kalabagh dam was the most suitable.

He said: “If we fail to construct Kalabagh, Bhasha, Kurram Tangi, Munda dams till 2016, there will be starvation and desertification across the country. Our economy will collapse.”

The Kalabagh dam, he said, could store the monsoon rain water flow and additional flow from Kabul, Swat, Chitral and Haro rivers.

President Musharraf said the construction of new reservoirs was a technical matter, but some leaders had made it a political issue and poisoned people’s minds about the construction of dams for their political ends.

He said that anti-dam elements alleged that with the construction of Kalabagh dam, the districts of Swabi and Nowshera would be inundated. “This is an utter lie because the maximum height of the Kalabagh dam is 915 feet while the Swabi district is more than 1,000 feet above the sea level and the Nowshera district at 940 feet.

Similarly, Mardan and Charsadda districts would also not be affected by the Kalabagh dam. There would be no water-logging problem, he claimed.

The president said that floodwater could be controlled with the construction of Kalabagh dam and floods could be further controlled with the construction of Munda dam on Swat river.

President Musharraf said that for maintaining the 8.4 per cent economic growth rate and meeting agriculture needs “we have to make a decision on dams.”

With the construction of the Kalabagh dam, he said, 700,000 acres of land would be brought under cultivation in the NWFP alone.

President Musharraf said that the gravity of the situation had forced him to directly contact the people to tell them about the need of new dams. The government was determined to construct new reservoirs.

He regretted that previous governments did not construct even a single reservoir in the last three decades, whereas other countries went ahead with building hundreds of reservoirs.

He said that the country could get electricity at the rate of Rs1 per unit, whereas at present thermal power was being produced at Rs5 to 7 per unit.

President Musharraf said that Pakistan’s war against terrorism would continue and appealed to the people that never support those fanning hatred.

He said that electricity and natural gas would be provided to all the villages of the Swabi district by the end of the year 2007, and similarly revolutionary changes would be brought in education and health sector. “We would also set up water filter plants to provide clean drinking,” he said.

Gen Musharraf said Pakistan was no longer a country which used to beg for aid, but at present Islamabad was planning to help poor nations in the Islamic World. “Pakistan is a respectable country in the comity of nations and have a unique place in the Ummah,” he said.

President Musharraf announced a Rs100 million development package for the Swabi district. He said additional fund would also be provided for upgrading the DHQ hospital, and seats would be reserved in the Kernal Sher Cadet College for the students of the district. The president said that the extension of Pehur canal in the district would be given due consideration.

Governor Khalilur Rehman, State Minister for Water and Power Amir Muqam and District Nazim Shahram Khan also addressed the gathering.