SWABI, Sept 30: “Pakistan has to build 750 small dams to meet its water requirements but the best solution is construction of big dams,” said Shamsul Mulk, former Wapda chairman who now heads the Society for Promotion of Engineering Sciences and Technology.

He was speaking at the Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute of Engineering Sciences and Technology on “Dimensions of Water Resources Development” in the university’s colloquium series on Friday.

“Small dams are not the alternative for big dams,” said Mr Mulk.

He said the construction of small dams in such large number is very difficult in Pakistan owing to the lack of sites. He said Pakistan had constructed 58 small dams until now in different regions of the country.

Small dams, he said, could meet the requirements of the local population and regions but big dams could accomplish the national requirements of electricity and irrigation.

“Only Tarbela Dam has been producing 16 billion units of electricity each year which is being provided to the consumers on cheaper prices, whereas small dams cannot produce such quantity of power,” he said.

He said Pakistan had already been included in the list of water-stressed countries and shortage of water was dangerous for the economy of the country. He said with the increasing population, demand for water had also increased manifold and the situation had led to a decrease in per capita water availability.

About the opposition to the Kalabagh dam, he said the basic problem of the opponents was that they did not have correct information about it.

He advocated the dam project and demanded its early construction in the best interest of the country.

He said they had to build more dams, be it Kalabagh or Basha dam. “To meet ever increasing demand of water for irrigation and power purposes, we have to build up more dams and reservoirs,” he said.