THE Kalabagh controversy refuses to go away, even in its “abandoning”. As it appears, it would not get resolved in future either and keep haunting the nation.

The successive governments’ strategy of avoiding water sector development in order to ‘save the federation’ from political pressures has not helped. Neither the controversy nor the pressure can be wished away by taking arbitrary decisions.

The manner in which the PPP government announced it intends to abandon the Kalabagh dam would only add fuel to the fire. Instead of taking up the project for democratic debate at the national level and at the proper forum like the Council of Common Interest, or the parliament to resolve it either way, the government has simply “shelved it for good.”

In shelving the project, if the PPP government has taken cue from persistent political controversies around the dam, those in favour point finger to periods when the project had national consensus behind it.

During the sixties when the Indus Basin Water Treaty was signed, the Kalabagh dam emerged as the most favourite site. President Ayub Khan dropped it in favour of Tarbella site, which fell in his native area.

Then the consensus emerged in Water Accord of 1991, which was signed by all four chief ministers, and clearly states: “The need for storages, where ever feasible on the Indus and other rivers was admitted and recognised by the participants for planned future agriculture development.” The accord was approved by the Council of Common Interests on March 21, 1991.

The previous government also formed technical and parliamentary committees on the issue to evolve consensus. The technical committee in its report supported the project and the parliamentary committee did not oppose it either.

The PPP government’s choice to take only controversial side of the project as a reference point would only worsen the problem.

It seems to have forgotten that pressure on the federation could only be removed by dealing with water paucity by building dams. By delaying decisions, it could only generate extra pressure on the federation.

In the heat of the moment, the government also ignored the fact that the Kalabagh dam has been the most studied – it was subjected to a series of most exhaustive studies spanning three decades (1953-1982) – and it was a technically sound project. If the three smaller provinces somehow view it as a Punjab project, farmers in Punjab would hold people from other federating units responsible for abandoning it.

Abandoning the Kalabagh dam project, without coming up with an alternative in a certain timeframe, is not only bad politics but the worst economics.

It is not the site of a particular dam per say which makes it favourite or otherwise, but bigger issues like economic, power and agriculture needs define a project. No can deal with these realities without building water reservoirs. Only a credible institution like parliament should take such decisions because it has to deal with these bigger issues.

At present, the country not only needs a particular dam but a series of them because its agriculture, the economic base of the country, is in bad shape.

Agriculture experts say if these water shortages are removed, per acre yield of almost all major crops could increase immediately and add Rs160 billion to the national economy. Over 18 billion units of electricity, their cost and impact are in addition to the loss the government suffers because of lack of water storage. The per capita water availability, which stood at 5,700 cubic meters in 1947, has dropped to 1,070, with 1,000 being the red line.

Pakistan used to have 15.9maf storage capacity, which has now dropped down to 11.6maf – a loss of 27 per cent. It simply translates into water shortages for agriculture. During the current Kahrif season, the country suffered a water shortage of 26 per cent and during the last Rabi it was at 23 per cent. Tarbella Dam used to serve water needs up to mid -June, when the refilling starts. It now hits dead level by late-February or early March. Silt eats 10-day irrigation supply every year forcing early emptying of lake. All these statistics are part of official record and debate.

Until and unless, the government comes up with a viable alternative plan to meet the water and power needs, it would only be making water problems more complex.

The Indus Basin Water Treaty gives Punjab exclusive rights over 9maf water storage to compensate it for loss of three eastern rivers. That is why Mangla and Tarbella Dams were built. No one seems to be bothered as to what would happen when the total storage capacity dwindles to 9maf and Punjab approaches the federation with exclusive rights over entire storages, leaving other three federating units on the run of river.

All these issues must be taken up in parliament and other federal bodies like the Council of Common Interest and debated and resolved in the federal spirit. Taking arbitrary decision in favour of one project or against other, would neither remove poverty nor pressure on the federation.