KARACHI: A panel of experts while speaking at a policy dialogue on water and census issues on Sunday, rejected the proposed Akhori Dam terming it an “unprofitable’ venture and more so against the interests of Sindh.

The experts also called for the implementing of the Supreme Court’s verdict on illegal immigrants, using the database of Nadra for ensuring fair census process, barring people of other provinces from casting their vote in Sindh. They also asked that certain constitutional measures be taken like issuance of work permit to restrict their movement to Sindh.

The dialogue was organised by Sindh Writers and Thinkers Forum. Former senior bureaucrats, Fazlullah Qureshi and Abdul Ghaffar Soomro, water and irrigation experts, Ghulam Mustafa Abro and Muhammad Idrees Rajput, Prof Aijaz Qureshi, Muzaffar Chandio, Noor Ahmed Memon, Nasir Aijaz and Manzoor Solangi spoke.

The audience was informed that the proposed project was part of the federal government’s Water Vision 2025 and was located near Akhori Village, 28km east of Attock and 40km west of Islamabad in Punjab. The proposed dam, with a height of over 400ft and length of 5.16km would have a reservoir capacity of above 6 MAF water. It would inundate more than 30 villages and displace 50,000 people but “hardly 600MW electricity could be produced”.

“As per plan, the dam will be filled by water spilled from Tarbela Dam during the flood season, while the Indus flood pattern shows that water spills out from Tarbela only after two or three years, which means even if the proposed dam receives water in certain seasons, there would be no water supplies to it for a long period, making it unworkable,” said a water expert.

“Spending billions of rupees on this project would be a bad investment and not economically feasible”, he said, demanding those at the helm to attach first priority to Bhasha Dam, which was a consensus project.

The experts opined that executing the disputed project of Akhori Dam, like that of Kalabagh Dam would swell distrust against Punjab.

“The revised PC-I of the Akhori Dam project includes construction of Akhori-Rasul Link Canal that would draw Indus water like Chashma-Jehlum and Taunsa-Punjnad link canals, which is ample proof that Indus water would be diverted to Jehlum,” said Mr Rajput.

Discussing the census issue, participants claimed that manipulations were reported in house-counting held in the past and urged the government to take effective measures to ensure a fair census.

They said Karachi in particular and the rest of Sindh in general could not afford further influx from other provinces as Sindh lacked infrastructure and employment resources even for its own people. Therefore, they demanded, movement of people from elsewhere should diligently be checked.

They also demanded that illegal aliens and Afghan refugees should be counted and registered separately and similarly, people from other provinces should have no right of vote in Sindh.

Published in Dawn, February 22nd, 2016