PESHAWAR, April 30: The NWFP cabinet has opposed construction of a large dam at Kalabagh and adopted a joint stand for the execution of the Bhasha dam project to help the country meet irrigation water requirements, provincial ministers for irrigation and local government told Dawn.
Members of the provincial cabinet were given a briefing, at the Committee Room of the Civil Secretariat, here on Friday, about the country’s irrigation water requirements, its potential, storage projects, proposed storage plans and hydel power generation projects and other issues relating to the water sector.
The provincial cabinet was explained in detail the pros and cons of the Kalabagh dam and Bhasha dam projects and other sites identified for developing water storage-cum-hydel power generation projects in the NWFP and Northern Areas.
When contacted separately, Minister for Irrigation, Power, Auqaf and Minorities Affairs Maulana Hafiz Akhtar Ali and the Minister for Local Government and Rural Development Sardar Mohammed Idrees told Dawn that the provincial cabinet had adopted a unanimous stand on the basis of the information provided to it during the briefing. It demanded that the federal government should go for executing the Bhasha dam project for it did not involve controversies and all the federating units had an agreement on its execution.
“The provincial government agrees that the country needs more water storages to meet its rising irrigation water requirements in future on the face of depleting capacity of its existing water reservoirs, but at the same time, it thinks that the federal government should select projects which are acceptable to all and entail more benefits,” the provincial minister for irrigation said.
He said the cabinet supported the Bhasha dam project on the pretext that there existed a general agreement among the federating units about its execution. It would enhance the life span of down-stream Tarbela dam’s water reservoir, it was economically and financially more beneficial than Kalabagh dam and, beyond that, in comparison with the Kalabagh dam it would bring more financial benefits to the NWFP, he said.
“In case of the Kalabagh dam project, the NWFP would not be eligible to get net hydel profit in accordance with the constitutional provisions because the power house(s) would be established at a place falling under the jurisdiction of Punjab,” he said referring to discussion at the meeting.
Whereas, added the minister, in case of Bhasha dam, the NWFP would get net hydel profit. “We think that the NWFP should get financial benefit because of its water potential,” said the minister.
Moreover, he maintained, the Kalabagh dam project would result more harm than good for the NWFP as, he added, its execution would result in huge displacement forcing thousands of families in the Nowshera district to leave their abodes. It would also affect agriculture sector in three of the most fertile districts of the province, including Nowshera, Swabi and Mardan.
In reply to a question, he said: “The meeting was convened to let the members of the cabinet know details of Kalabagh dam and Bhasha dam projects before the provincial government adopts a formal view in response to President Pervez Musharraf’s stand on Kalabagh dam.”
Local Government Minister Sardar Idrees said the cabinet had resolved that Bhasha dam had more benefits than the Kalabagh dam project.
The irrigation minister said three smaller provinces had reservations about the Kalabagh dam project and their assemblies had also adopted unanimous resolutions against its execution, therefore, the federal government should not execute it without addressing their reservations.
“The NWFP government feels that the Centre should not execute the Kalabagh dam project without developing consensus among the provinces,” said the irrigation minister.