After a burst of activity, the government’s determination to resolve the issue of water shortage, more precisely to build one or more dams, seems to have wilted; the only reports about water have been on reduced irrigation supplies for the next crop or protest of farmers from some areas about scarcity of water.

The government’s quiet on the issue can be interpreted as success of a device by the authorities to divert attention from political controversies like LFO, President of Pakistan in military uniform, troops for Iraq and recognition of Israel. They receded into background during Ramadan; the arrest of ARD and PML (N) leader Javed Hashmi shifted the focus further away from questions the government does not like to discuss. That has made the issue of water shortage look like a tool that had served its purpose.

One would however prefer to view developments from a positive angle and believe that the time since the announcement of the policy has been spent by the authorities for mustering support for their programme and launching it after resolving differences and allaying misgivings by emphasizing the importance of enhancing water resources as well as pointing out that Pakistan lags far behind other countries of the region in this field.

A comparison between dams built by Pakistan, India and China shows how badly we are in this field. Jawad Nazir, a senior journalist has helped me out with details of developments in these countries and statistics gathered by him through research underline the fact that India and China, as also Iran and Turkey have moved leagues ahead of Pakistan to build and sustain their water and hydel power resources. A comparison with India and China places Pakistan in a terribly negative position in this regard.

The impression that the government may not have been committed to the building of dams or it was dragging its feet took a more concrete form because of the indecision regarding the appointment of chairman Wapda and speculation whether the incumbent would be offered extension after the completion of his tenure or he would be replaced.

That the chairman was retiring was common knowledge. One expected the authorities to be ready with a decision. The chairman Wapda is no ordinary assignment. The organization plays a vital role in national life; it is crucial to both industrial and agricultural sectors and manages one of the lifelines of Pakistan.

That has finally been settled and in a positive manner in so far as that a civilian manager has been appointed instead of, as the practice of the present army dominated quasi-democratic set-up has been, by another in-service or retired general. The five years of management by a general did not bring about a change for the better in the image of Wapda, its performance as a utility service, reduction in line losses or relief to consumers.

Prime Minister Jamali’s advice to the new chairman to control corruption suggests that the outgoing head of the organization did not achieve reportable results on this count either. It is to be read as indictment of the general who ruled Wapda for five years under civilian and military administration.

In fact, except for the period when it was presided over by Safdar Butt, Wapda had little worth writing about the tenure of the other generals who had been given its command. If Wapda is currently in the dock, they are largely responsible for the decline in its standing and quality of its service. However, even they may not be accused of totally failing to deliver because major decisions are thrust on the organization by Islamabad.

The new head of Wapda will also have to work under this burden because the federal government’s hold is not likely to be loosened than it has been so far and neither are attitudes and policies of international monetary agencies that are seen as determining many vital fiscal decisions in Pakistan likely to change. One should consequently not expect too much from the new chairman with regard to undertaking water sector projects or providing relief to consumers in the cost of electricity.

Islamabad was in a position to give the new chairman an advantageous start by leaving the decision of reduction in electricity tariff to the new man in WAPDA House, Lahore but the government announced the reduction before he had time to settle down.

Facts about Pakistan’s water resources and allied issues are established. Total surface water resources stand at 157 MAF. Irrigation uses 106 MAF while agriculture sector’s shortfall is met by resorting to the use of 48 MAF ground water. The reservoirs’ original capacity of storing 18.37 maf has declined by 5.58 MAF due to sedimentation; this process of loss in reservoir’s water continues.

Water consumption per capita was 5650 cm in 1951; it came down to 1,400 cm by year 2000 and continues to deplete. Pakistan was a water affluent country at the time of independence; currently, it is a little above the minimum level. If depletion persists and resources are not enhanced by adding to the existing storage capacity, Pakistan would become a water poor country in the next eight to ten years.

The country would obviously need more water in the coming years for sustainability of the agriculture sector and for the populace. The need has been there all along but just two dams, Mangla and Tarbela, were built since 1947 and there has been no headway in this direction after the construction of Tarbela thirty-year back.

But the world has not remained static and a total of about 50,000 dams exist around the globe today, 20,000 of them in China alone. Other major countries in this field are India, Turkey, Iran, Jordan and Japan. They are constantly building new dams to ensure sufficiency of water for the coming generations.

China is adding the 3 Gorges dam to its reservoirs; it is to be the country’s ‘biggest engineering project since the building of the Great Wall’ about 2000 years ago. The project was originally proposed by Sun Yat-Sen in 1919 but could be approved for construction only in 1992. It is to be completed by 2009 at a cost of $25 billion and would have a 658 sq km reservoir and energy generation capacity of about 40,000 megawatts.

Nearer home, India built over 2000 reservoirs between 1970 and 1989 and currently has another 461 dams of height of 15 meters or above while 234 dams of up to 10 m height under construction. Their completion would take the number of dams in India to 4,291. They include projects regarded as detrimental to water resources of Pakistan.

And what have we been doing? A popular pastime of every government and most politicians since Z.A.Bhutto has been wrangling over a dam that has been ready for construction in every way for the last so many years. Controversies over it show no sign of abating. Meanwhile, water resources continue to shrink.

This is the scenario in two neighbouring countries. One of them is Pakistan’s most reliable friend while we have no end of problems with the other. On the issue of water reservoirs, the position of both is the same. Dams are apparently considered vital by both for the growth of their economies and for meeting needs of the people. They have had controversies and problems with their dams too, particularly India in the case of reservoirs involving more than one state but differences were resolved. Why can the leaders and authorities in Pakistan not agree on the basic requirements of the country and its future?