The dam issue

The Supreme Court-led campaign to collect funds for the Diamer-Bhasha and Mohmand dams through donations has been successful in at least one regard: it has brought much-needed attention to the problem of water scarcity in the country and the urgent need for action. The fund was never going to come close to raising the total amount for the dams. The Diamer-Bhasha dam alone is budgeted to cost nearly Rs1.5 trillion. Now that the fund has worked as a publicity vehicle for a pressing problem, the state needs to decide how it will proceed. The Supreme Court has stated that building dams is not the job of judges – which is how it should be. It is the government which needs to ensure that funding is available for dams and then work towards their construction. Indeed, it had planned for this even before the Supreme Court fund collection began. The land for the dams had already been acquired and the Public Sector Development Programme had outlined the funds needed to continue work for the next fiscal year. The funds that have already been donated, and those that may continue to pour in, can be used to ameliorate the total cost. The next step is to find the funding to complete the projects.

One suggestion made by public officials is adding a surcharge to electricity bills. This would not be recommended. Burdening the public with yet another indirect tax will disproportionately hit the poor. Another option is seeking funding through international donors and financial institutions. This, too, has proven difficult since the World Bank, Asian Development Banks and others are not keen to provide money for major projects given our poor track record of completing such projects on time and within the specified budget. The government should be funding dams and other important projects through better collection of income tax – something that has proved beyond the capability of all previous governments. What we should have learned from the focus on dams recently is that major decisions on matters of governance should not be made lightly. It is the job of the government to identify priorities and secure funding for it before proceeding. Matters of the state cannot be settled in an ad-hoc manner with crucial decisions postponed to a later date. The state will never have the funds for every worthwhile project. What is needed is proper planning and all institutions working in concert rather than at cross-purposes.