Each day that passes water shortage is increasing in the country. Ground water level is going down which has already reached a precarious level. Urgent measures are needed to replenish water supply. Prime need is therefore to build a mega water storage dam like KBD that would ensure our survival and also provide cheap power in the process. Consensus or no consensus we have to build the dam in time. Otherwise there would be no recharge of lower riparians of Indus River and ground water would keep on slipping to dangerous levels.
The matter of lack of consensus between provinces has to be dealt with by the rulers by whatever means they devise. When F M Ayub Khan built Tarbela and Mangla hydroelectric dams some four decades ago, there was no mention of the word consensus. Now the successive democratic rulers have failed to build a single water storage reservoir since past four decades which shows the ineptness and poor performance of rulers taking shelter behind the word consensus but not making any effort to resolve the issue inspite of their heavy mandates that is bedeviling the entire future of Pakistan.
DR MUHAMMAD YAQOOB BHATTI
Lahore