A big dam

This refers to the letter, ‘Flogging dead horses’ (Aug 22) by Farid Nawaz. The Kalabagh dam should not be treated as a dead horse because the climatic conditions of Pakistan have changed since the idea was earlier rejected by the three provinces. Due to global warming, we desperately need more big water storage facilities.

The melting of glaciers due to global warming is likely to increase with time if we do not prepare ourselves with huge water storage dams. The Kalabagh dam will not only cater to our power requirements but also provide us water storage facilities. Small dams cannot serve this purpose. When the proposal was floated earlier, the consideration was mainly power generation but now we need it also for water storage. The provinces have to be convinced to understand this.

Zaheer Ahmed

Islamabad

*****

Since agriculture is backbone of our economy, Kalabagh dam should not be politicised. An all-parties conference should be summoned on this issue.

The dam would help us reduce the cost of electricity to Rs1.25 per unit. It will also contain flood waters, and so help yield more energy. We also need micro dams, otherwise we could end up a water-scarce country.

Sarmad Elahi

Lahore