So many years of independence have passed, but the government of Pakistan still cannot use its resources. Although Pakistan is rich in mineral resources, but alas, people are far from their basic requirements, such as electricity and water. We have so many coal reserves that we can meet our energy requirement for more than 100 years. We can make electricity by using coal and can even
Import it by successfully managing and executing the resources available.
The second basic problem in Pakistan is water. Pakistan cannot prey compared to India. India has completed 40 dams on the Jhelum and Chenab rivers of which four large and 16 small have become operational. India is building the third largest dam in the world called Kargil on the Sindh River.
Pakistan depends heavily on agriculture, which in turn depends on water. The Kalabagh dam will generate the most desired electricity. It originally begun in 1985 and In the year of 2017, it was all setto execute the long awaited project but the tragic murder of Benazir Bhutto once again deleyed the desired project. Kalabagh will have an installed capacity of 2400 MW initially and 3,600 MW as a last resort. The Water and Energy Development Authority of Pakistan estimates that the annual electricity generated in Kalabagh will be 20 million barrels of oil equivalent, saving fuel that would otherwise be needed to produce thermal energy.
The water problem will be solved only when the decision makers forget their personal interest and think of Pakistan. We have so many resources that we do not have to ask from other countries, but the only hurdle in the way is the callous attitude of our leaders and their inbuilt and innate habbit of corruption. This issue is tried to be resolved by The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Pakistan (CJP), Mian Saqib Nisar, He himself donated 1 million rupees as an initiative for the construction of two dams: Diamer Bhasha and Mohmand dams. This shows his commitment to face the challenge of water crisis and the spill of electricity in the country by resolving them with full enthusiasm.
After the Pakistan’s army initiated of donating salary for dams, Supreme Court employees also announced that they will contribute funds for the construction of the Diamer-Bhasha and Mohmand dams. A statement from the Supreme Court established that all officers (BS-16 and above) will donate two days of salary, and the staff (BS-20 to 15) one day’s salary of the current month for the construction of the dams.
The State Bank of Pakistan announced that the accounts dedicated to collecting donations for the Diamer Bhasha and Mohmand Dam are now in operation worldwide at the respective bank branches in order to raise funds from Pakistanis abroad as well.
Notwithstanding, the politicians are entirely failed to develop a consensus to deal with the increasing water issues and are visionless in the matter of constructing dams. In such catastrophic conditions if army and judiciary have stepped in for the national cause and with the vision of saving our coming generation from water scarcity, than there is no matter to raise eyebrows. There is no denying the impression that Pakistan has been severely jolted by the water decreasing in ground level. A matter of immense rethinking is that in Pakistan ground water has been extracted by the people which is kept save for the needy and hot days by the developed countries. But unfortunately, we have been using it since many years. The government has failed to check this issue. There are many companies which are doing the aforementioned illegal practice and earning a lot of trust and don’t even pay a penny for tax.
Another worth-mentioning issue in this regard is that the country’s water storage capacity has been reduced by approximately 35%, mainly due to the continuous accumulation of sediments that has been eroding the space available to store water in the dams. This situation is alarming since no progress has been made in the construction of more dams for one reason or another.
The Director General of the Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD), Ghulam Rasul, said that we are already faced with the shortage of reservoirs to store rainwater for future use. Therefore, this additional decrease in the storage capacity of the existing reservoirs will worsen the situation in the future. During the current monsoon season, Pakistan is not storing rainwater in dams, but is releasing it to create enough storage space to cope with a situation similar to a flood.
Generally speaking, the country’s total water storage capacity is less than 30 days of minimum requirements, which is considered too low and close to water scarcity compared to the global standards of 120 days of coverage.
It is estimated that Pakistan will declare itself a nation with water shortages by 2025 unless a new additional capacity is achieved. The country’s per capita water availability has decreased from more than 5,300 cubic meters in the 1950s to about 1,000 cubic meters now, which is the benchmark for scarcity.
Meanwhile, talking about the possibilities of river flooding in Pakistan in the coming weeks, there is currently less chance of river flooding in Pakistan because India releases water when its reserves cross the maximum storage limit. Currently, they are 60-70% full. It is expected that in August they will cross the maximum level, “he said.
During this monsoon season, KP has received the highest amount of rain, (74%) followed by Punjab (26%) Sindh has received the least amount of rain, (95%) below the previous average, followed by Balochistan (30%), GB (7%) and AJK (3%).
So by keeping in view all the above said danger/alarming issue we can say that our Chief Justice and our Pak-Army took a great initiative for the betterment of Pakistan. And we need to donate as much as we can to safe ourselves from the upcoming alarming situation. As our Politian’s are so busy in elections, no need to disturb them let’s donate for dams.
Let us forget about the concept of separation of power when we know that we are going to be facing the huge crises. If Executive are not doing their work than other two organs of state: Legislature and Judiciary must intervene in the domain of Executive. And then no one is allowed to ask question. We have to safe Pakistan and People of Pakistan from crises rather than the concept of Separation of Power.
