September 05, 2016
President Pakistan Businessmen and Intellectuals Forum (PBIF), President AKIA, Senior Vice Chairman of the Businessmen Panel of FPCCI and former provincial minister Mian Zahid Hussain on Monday said country cannot afford further delay in construction of dams.
Demand for water continue to increase therefore we must shun differences over mega dams while construction of hundreds of mini dams should be initiated without delay lest country become a desert, he said.
Mian Zahid Hussain said that the areas in Sindh and Balochistan facing drought should be preferred for the construction of mini dams as the lives of masses, livestock and agriculture has badly damaged in some districts.
He said that country could only store seven percent of its water resources enough for requirement of thirty days while the storage capacity must be enhanced to forty percent of the water resources.
The collective storage capacity in Tarbela, Mangla and Chashma will be reduced by 37 percent which will be a nightmare as rains irrigate only 15 percent of the crop while rest of the crops are irrigated by rivers, canals and a small part through groundwater.
In past 24 small dams were planned and completed in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 60 were planned in Balochistan and half were completed, 34 were planned in Punjab and three were completed and four were planned in Sindh and none was completed.
Mian Zahid said that seventy percent of the population is linked to agriculture for whom water storage capacity should be enhanced without which food security will remain a far cry.
