Gandapur conditionally supports Kalabagh Dam concern

ISLAMABAD: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur on Monday threw full but conditional support to the construction of controversial Kalabagh Dam at a time when Pakistan faces climate change challenges.

Talking to the media informally at the KP House here, he emphasised that for doing politics or in pursuit of provincialism, he could not harm the whole of Pakistan. He insisted that the interests of the whole country could not be pushed aside.

“Pakistan’s interests could not be pushed back for the sake of anyone’s personal or provincial or petty interests or concerns. You should go for a Kalabagh dam-like project for the sake of your children and your future generations,” he said.

Gandapur, however, insisted that his viewpoint was that this should be done after addressing concerns and reservations of the provinces and satisfying and safeguarding their documented water rights.

When this correspondent tried to seek comment of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s Information Secretary Shaikh Waqas Akram on this tricky matter, he declined to say anything. “I will be able to talk on this after having a meeting with the KP Chief Minister possibly tomorrow after listening to his point of view face to face,” he explained.

Speaking about the recent massive rains and floods, the chief minister said that the rains caused losses in many cities, whereas Bunir, Shangla, Swabi and Swat were badly affected, as 12 and 14 feet of floodwaters came which destroyed houses.

“All our institutions mobilised and worked, reached all the people within 24 hours and rescued them. 490 people were killed by floodwaters in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa,” he explained. He said, “We are providing relief to the victims, the heirs of the deceased have been given Rs. 2 million each, 50 percent of the injured have received money; we have run out of check boxes to give to the injured, so we were unable to give money to 100 percent of the injured. He continued that Rs. 1 million is being given to the completely destroyed houses, while work is also underway on government properties.

The KP Chief Minister said that the district administration and rescue agencies responded promptly, as a result of which 6,700 people were rescued alive, 2,500 rescue personnel and 1,000 civil defenCe volunteers were deployed in the affected areas.

Pakistan Army personnel and five helicopters, he noted, participated in the rescue/relief operation, 176 vehicles including ambulances, fire fighting vehicles and boats were immediately rushed to the affected areas.

He said that 200 heavy machinery of C&W were immediately deployed to open the affected roads and bridges, medical camps and four mobile hospitals were established in the affected areas. He added that the victims were provided with cooked food, so far 250,000 people have been provided with ready meals. He said water filtration plants were installed to provide drinking water to the people.