Each discussion on TV channels is for meeting shortage of power but no voice is raised for the worsening shortage of sweet water. Already children have died in hundreds in Thar desert due to thirst and millions in Karachi are facing daily ordeals in acquiring drinking water. Half of the rural population of Pakistan lacks clean drinking water and is riddled with diseases like hepatitis C with no affordable cure. KBD is awaiting the attention of rulers to be built although an eminent engineer like Mr Shams-ul-Mulk is on record to having said that today people are clamouring for shortage of power but when shortage of water would hit them they would forget power shortage.
Water is the basis of all life. Today a bottle of clean water is costlier than a bottle of soft drink or a bottle of milk. We have ignored water all this time in not building a large storage of water. The Water Accord of 1991 that apportioned water between provinces has never been implemented due to lack of a dam that could store water and also generate dirt cheap power for people of Pakistan. Who is to blame but the past governments? They have been enjoying musical chairs since past several decades without worrying for water. While power can even be imported but water could never be imported. We have to depend on our rivers for water but who would plan for water storages? That is a $64 million question.
DR MUHAMMAD YAQOOB BHATTI
Lahore
