LAST month’s floods have revived the debate on the need for big dams which the country has failed to build during the last 45 years. This happens after every flood for a while.

Mirza Asif Baig, Pakistan commissioner for Indus waters, says that the country would not have suffered colossal losses in terms of human lives, property, crops, cattle-heads and infrastructure, nor had the huge quantum of water thus released by swollen rivers gone waste if there had been more dams than the three, Tarbela, Mangla and Chashma.

But the big dams — the Kalabagh dam, a case in point for having been initiated three decades ago, remains stalled — are being opposed by Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. However, the fact remains that there is no escape from building big storages where water from floods — which may become more frequent and more devastating in the years to come — could be preserved for multiple uses including irrigation.

To irrigate the country’s 14m hectares of farmland, a huge amount of water is needed. But Pakistan has only about 30 days’ storage capacity against the recommended 1,000 days for countries with a similar climate. This carry-over capacity, according to federal minister Ahsan Iqbal, has now depleted to 18 days as compared to India’s 220 days and Egypt’s 1,000 days. Meanwhile, the per capita water availability has decreased from 5,000 cubic metres to less than 1,000cms and it may go down to 800cms by 2025, a situation where human survival becomes difficult and economic development comes to a halt, says the minister.

A major victim of neglect on the part of successive governments has been the country’s agriculture whose demand for irrigation water can no more be met by the two reservoirs. As a result, the groundwater is being heavily over-pumped. At present, Pakistan’s water storage capacity is around 7pc of the total available water

However, in May the government gave go-ahead signal to the construction of Diamer-Bhasha Dam, a 4,500MW hydropower project and the 2,000 megawatt Dasu Hydropower Project on the Indus river. But not many believe that big dams are the best solution. Being too costly, big dams cause destruction of ecology, loss of biodiversity and uprooting of local communities. Now most countries prefer smaller dams which are less costly and are built in much less time.

By 2000, the number of large dams was estimated to have gone beyond 47,000, and of smaller dams 800,000. Whereas India has built 63 large dams in its northern areas over the last 30 years, Pakistan has built only two large dams. Ahsan Iqbal warns that if new reservoirs are not built and available water resources not efficiently managed, Pakistan may face Thar-like drought in half of the country.

A major victim of neglect on part of successive governments has been the country’s agriculture whose demand for irrigation water can no more be met by the two reservoirs and as a result the groundwater is being heavily over-pumped. At present, Pakistan’s water storage capacity is around 7pc of the total available water.

The Tarbela Lake had the water storage capacity of 9 MAF in mid-1970s which, over the years, reduced to 6.58MAF due to silting. Similarly, Mangla Dam had 5MAF storage capacity in that period which gradually came down to 4.5MAF owing to sedimentation. Meanwhile, Tarbela Dam had been filled to 1550 feet, thus attaining its maximum storage capacity of 6.45MAF. Similarly, Mangla Dam has been filled to its maximum level of 1242 feet to store 6.70MAF water, making it the country’s biggest reservoir surpassing Tarbela dam’s storage capacity.

In recent years, the shortage of water had sometimes been so grave that it not only affected standing crops, it also led to grave differences among the provinces over the water share. The provinces, one may note, have also the responsibility to build water storages to meet their farmers’ needs. The provinces have generally ignored Article 6 of the 1991 water accord which states that ‘the need for storages, wherever feasible on the Indus and other rivers was admitted and recognised by the participants for planned future agricultural development’. So far, very few storages have been built.

The solution to the current water crises lies in building large as well as small water storages. Eleven projects were undertaken in recent years and most of them are now nearing completion. They include Gomal Zam dam, Rainee canal, Sindh, Kachchi canal, Balochistan, Satpara dam, Skardu, and Darwat dam, Sindh.

Published in Dawn, Economic & Business, October 6th, 2014