Pakistan needs to develop 22 million acre feet (MAF) of water storage on war footing as India has cunningly acquired the ability to store 38MAF of live storage on three western rivers allocated to Pakistan, equaling the full requirement of the country’s Rabi crop.
A letter addressed to the president and prime minister, written by former chairman of Indus River System Authority (IRSA) Engineer Fateh Ullah Khan, has warned that Pakistan was in deep crisis due to shortage of irrigation water and hydropower for lack of multipurpose dams that also controlled floods and silting of reservoirs.
“Floods like 2010 can ravage again and again during the climate change any time and many time. India has prepared itself for water war in silence. As a result Rabi water supplies would completely cutoff, and famine would appear, people would die of hunger. Please wake up from slumber even now though late,” it said.
A copy of the letter available with Pakistan Today stresses immediate action to develop new reservoirs as India has built 32 dams and has acquired ability to stop 38MAF of Rabi water requirements.
It was revealed by Senator John Kerry before US Congress. India was also planning 12 dams on Kabul River to dry Pakistan’s Rabi supplies. The letter said the government had not reacted against the Indian aggression of silently using water as weapon of mass destruction.
He proposed building unique 35MAF multipurpose Katzarah Dam in Skardu to store 6 times the storage of Bhasha Dam. It will help generate 10,000MW of hydropower, control super floods in Indus River and work as watershed management dam to prevent silt in the Indus water.
It will also increase life of Basha from 85 years to 800 years. A study conducted by World Bank showed Skardu valley was the source of silt. If Katzarah dam is built, it will help irrigate about three to four million acres of the Kachi plain in Balochistan from Chashma Barrage. Another water storage project Khan proposed was the 8.5MAF multipurpose Guroh Dop Dam on Punjkora River to store 3MAF of its runoff. It will help divert 4MAF of floodwater in Guroh Dop Reservoir from Chitral River through a 22km tunnel by building Mikhani Dam and power generation of 1,400MW. This will control floods in Kabul River.
In a unique substitute for Kalabagh Dam, he proposes building 100 feet low dam cum 60 feet barrage over it. The site is three miles upstream of KBD into the Indus valley.