LAHORE: The Jamaati-Islami has called for constructing the controversial Kalabagh dam for irrigating barren lands and taming rain and fl ood water.

“Work on Kalabagh dam should be started as earlier as possible for controlling fl oods and ustilising the water for irrigating hundreds of thousands of acres of barren lands,” a press release on Tuesday quoted Punjab JI leader and MPA Dr Waseem Akhtar as saying.

“The government won’t need to carry the begging bowl to international lenders for funds to construct the water reservoir as chambers of Karachi, Lahore, Multan, Faisalabad and Rawalpindi have already promised bearing all expenses of the project.”

He regretted that personal and political interests had been delaying the project for decades and the fl oodwater was playing havoc with the properties and lives of the masses while India was building dam after dam on Pakistani rivers to generate electricity and get irrigation water, allegedly to damage Pakistan by releasing water at once without properly informing Islamabad.

Published in Dawn, October 1st , 2014