The Monsoon rains’ second spell has set in. Heavy rains in the last two days have again warned what can happen in this season. Disaster management cell and Flood controlling authorities have to be smart and on the toes to meet any type of emergency situation. Last year, the nation suffered heavily due to non-preparation and unsystematic approach of relevant departments.
It was felt that the construction of large and small dams was the need of the hour and compulsory for preventing regular occurrence of floods in plain areas. But it remained a wild cry and nothing has been done practically so far. Power outages are increasing with every single day and the gulf of gap between production and required consumption is widening horrifically.
In such a horrendous situation, the top priority of the government must be construction of dams to cater to the need of water requirement and water management in case of heavy rains plus electricity production.
It’s the irony of our fate that we people always indulge in criticising and making issues out of the projects of national interests. When water oozed from every nook and corner in the last floods, our worthy Prime Minister Gilani commented that had we built Kalabagh Dam, situation would have been different in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
After the floods were over, the project was again kept in cold storage as usual. We should learn to store rain water as an energy resource and utilise it like India does for better crops and mitigating water shortage during extreme hot season.
IFTIKHAR SHAHEEN MRIZA
Islamabad
