The PPP should leverage its position as a coalition partner to advocate for the construction of the Soan Dam/Indus Link Canal Project, located at Dhok Pathan in the Potohar Plateau. This project was initially surveyed by the World Bank Dam Survey Group in 1955. Considering climate change, floods, water shortages, seawater intrusion in the Indus River Delta, expensive electricity, and a rapidly growing population, the construction of the Soan Dam/Indus Link Canal Project is imperative.
It would have a water storage capacity of 38 to 48 million acre-feet – eight to 10 times that of the Tarbela Dam. As a carryover dam, it would also divert flood waters from the Indus River (upstream of the Tarbela Dam) to the Soan Dam via a canal and release them as needed. Currently, Pakistan loses one-fourth of the Indus Basin’s water annually, as it flows unused into the Arabian Sea. The cost of the Soan Dam/Indus Link Canal Project would be comparable to that of the Diamer-Bhasha Dam. The Soan Dam/Indus Link Canal would prove to be a boon for Sindh and a feather in the PPP’s cap.
Syed Hussein El-Edroos
Islamabad