Najam Abbas Najmi has written an excellent letter on the above subject. He informs us that water is being released from Pong and Bhakra dams on the eastern rivers, as they have reached close to their full capacity. Just like our Mangla and Tarbela dams have. Dams also have to keep a certain margin for incoming floods and must release what they cannot hold back, even at the risk of causing floods downstream.
Why even the initial low level releases from India have caused excessive damage is because our farmers had foolishly cultivated crops in the dry river beds.
An important point to note is that the Indian dams being well away from the border, any undue release by India would first inundate their own lands before entering Pakistan. It is in India’s own interest to store as much water as it can and it would be quite wrong to say that India is wasting precious water just to hurt Pakistan.
An emotional unsupported blame is bound to bounce back damaging one’s credibility and weakening one’s case. Unfortunately, a lot of this is happening in our handling of the water dispute with India.
Wapda/IRSA should set up a website where necessary information can be obtained before writing letters that do more harm than good. Najam Abbas Najmi’s letter is a laudable exception.
KHURSHID ANWER
Lahore
