Water Development in Pakistan is pre-requisite to change its culture, destiny, bring prosperity and eradicate terrorism

A hungry man will become mercenary terrorist used by foreign agencies

Earth is a unique planet in the universe. Its three-fourth area is covered with Water. Man is a unique creature created by God in the universe and is gifted  with Conscience to know what is good and what is bad. The Quran reveals:-

“And He it is Who hath created man from water” (25:54)

“Allah made every living thing of water” (21:50)”

“And Allah hath created every animal of water. (

This shows God created life out of Water on earth to create humankind and made water as the source of his survival. Man basically depends on Water, land and air to survive.

Pakistan is a land gifted with enough water, excellent land and hard working farmers to produce food, creates jobs, earn money and create conditions of peace. Pakistan has developed the largest contiguous canal irrigation system in the world about 150 years ago. The 180 million population of Pakistan depends on irrigated agriculture to produce food for survival and earn source of living. Pakistan exports agricultural products to the world besides meeting its food requirements and other needs for agro-based industry.

For maintaining peace in the region and in the world, the development of water to produce food, provide jobs, bring prosperity is pre-requisite. This will permanently eradicate terrorism. An earning and well-to-do- man, will never become terrorist to earn source of living.

It is pre-requisite that for water development, avoiding corruption, and increasing efficiency, excellent governance is required. Moreover, for water development there should be no dirty political interference. For smooth water development, a Master Plan must be prepared and its implementation should be provided in the Constitution for execution, within a specified time.

More over this country is highly negligent in its water development. It suffers heavily due to many water issues, like floods, salinity, silting of reservoirs. Water shortage, Power shorted and food shortage since it is created. Moreover, Water Accord and Indus Waters Treaty are almost failure. Lands are getting saline and out of cultivation due to lack of drainage. These issues severely affected Pakistan economically besides affecting the whole world directly and indirectly. The negligent state is a burden on other nations. Poor governance invites terrorism but terror is never eradicated. Huge Powers like Russia and USA invited trouble without foreseeing the consequences, as billions and billions of dollars are wasted in wars to fight terrorism, but war is never won after killing, and dislocating large population. On the contrary war is exaggerated.

Alternately, if 15% money of the long war was spent on Pakistan education and on its water developed, there would have been no terror in Pakistan. Moreover, Kashmir dispute is also water war, forcibly occupied by India. This dispute is not solved by UN for 60 years. It is a time bomb for 2050. Kashmir is sign of UN failure. Islam teaches a culture of peace, equity and justice. The Quran teaches;

“If you kill one mankind is like if you have killed all mankind”. “If you have saved one mankind is like if you have saved all mankind”.

Pakistan’s Water issues of destructive nature caused poverty, ignorance and terrorism. Water Development has shown change in culture and not the wars

A recent example of this fact is quoted in case of Gomal Dam Project completed in 2012, though the network of canal system is in progress with the USAID. The people of Kulachi Tehsil known as Gandapur Tribe, touching its boundary with South Waziristan Agency were very poor. They had no source of income except cutting fuel wood from the fields. They used to sell their lands at the rate of Rs 2 to Rs 50 per Kanal.  0ne acre has 8 Kanals.  Most of the young men joined the nearby Taliban in South Waziristan Agency as adventurers. After the construction of Gomal Dam, all young men came back to develop their lands as the value of land per Kanal has reached from Rs40,000 to RS 110000/-. They are busy developing their lands. Great change in their culture has been noticed. Similar is the case of the poor farmers of Chashma Right Bank Canal in D.I Khan District. It totally changed the culture of the people of D.I. Khan. This shows prosperity through water development, swiftly changes the culture of the whole area. Let us use this methods for peace as it is popular, humane, and the permanent source of living rather wars, destruction, devastation, killing, waste of money, destruction of economy and creating hatred against humankind.  

Pakistan’s main water and power issues are;

*  Mismanagement of  canal irrigation system that is 150 years old, has highly incompatible canal design to match agricultural water requirements of today, besides highly wasteful, wasting about 50 per cent of the water, out of about 100 maf that enters the network of canals. This needs modernization of the canal irrigation system to save huge quantity of water and irrigate more area to feed the rapidly growing population. The canal irrigation system has become obsolete.

* Moreover, floodwater wastage ranges between 122.804 maf to 0.281 maf each year. On the average the floodwater wasted to sea is 35 maf. This shows Pakistan must build many dams to store floodwater for irrigation and power generation. Pakistan has imposed self poverty on itself.

* This essentially needs to build the 35 maf, multipurpose, Katzarah Dam on the Indus that will store huge floodwater going waste to sea, serve as flood control structure on the Indus, generate power and serve as Water Shed management Dam to prevent silt, and prolong the life of Basha Dam and all dams on the downstream.

* It essentially needs to build the 8.5 maf, multipurpose, Guroh Dop Dam on Punjkora River, a major tributary of Swat River. This will store water, generate power and control floods in Kabul River.

 If the above two dams were built in time, Pakistan would have been safe against the devastating floods of 2010 and destructive rainwater of 2011. There would have been no crippling load shedding. There would have been no water shortage, besides no rapid silting of dams.

* To build substitute project for Kalabagh Dam by changing its wrong design and adverse effects on provinces by providing new concept of low dam-cum-high Fateh barrage  at an Ele: 700 . This will cost about $2 billion and build within two years and 6 months. This will produce power on run-of-the-river from about 2000 MW to 6000 MW. It requires no land acquisition, no cost of compensation, and no population movement.

* To build All Pakistan Grand Canal, branching from Chashma Barrage and fed by Katzarah Dam to irrigate the 3.5 million acres of barren land of Kachi Plain in Baluchistan. This Project discovered by me in 1961 is extraordinarily vital to develop Baluchistan. All the above projects were discovered by me in 1961. Pakistan wasted time and money by taking off Kachi canal from Mithan Kot. It failed and abandoned.  

* Regarding Basha Dam on the Indus, the World Bank has refused to fund it, asking Pakistan to get NOC from India. The World Bank has ignored the fact given by Senator John Kerry that India has built 32 hydraulic structures on Pakistani Rivers in the disputed territory of Occupied Kashmir and is building more dams. It is very unfortunate that the World Bank did not object in case of India who built dozens dams/hydraulic structures without getting NOC from Pakistan.. This obviously seems to be the political interference at that level. Please refer to John Kerry report:

“that India has acquired the ability to store enough water to limit the supply of water to Pakistan at critical moment in the growing season”.

* The refusal to finance Basha Dam by the World Bank is in spite of the fact that Pakistan suffers due to acute shortage of water and the crippling load shedding. Moreover, Pakistan has built dams on the Indus, under the Indus Waters Treaty at Tarbela, Mangla and Chashma. This means the World Bank violated the Indus Waters Treaty by not financing a multipurpose dam on the Indus as Replacement to Tarbela. Pakistan also lacks mega dam sites on the Indus except Basha Dam and Katzarah Dam. Other dam sites on the Indus are for power generation. There are no dam sites on Kabul River in Pakistan.  NO dam sites on Jehlum River and Chenab Rivers in Pakistan to store floodwaters going waste to sea.

* Moreover, the storage-based Water Accord, signed in 1991, is not yet implemented due to lack of storage dams. The result is acute water and hydro-power shortage prevailing in spite of Water Accord.

* The site for the Kalabagh Dam Project proposed by WAPDA at the very end of the Indus valley in fifty’s was unsuitable. Therefore, it became highly controversial politically. Also the design of Kalabagh Dam became controversial technically between the Project consultant and WAPDA. As a result, 50 years status quo was created by WAPDA. WAPDA adopted a policy of “Kalabagh Dam or no dam”. The feasibility of Basha Dam was prepared in 1981 but WAPDA did not build the dam because of Kalabagh controversy. This created water and power crises.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   

* Storage in Pakistan is subjected to rapid silting due to no watershed management. Storage under the Indus Waters Treaty at Tarbala, Mangla and Chashma are silted by 6.5 maf and there is no replacement storage built so far. This will create more water and power shortage in future.

* Pakistan, on the average waste water to sea of about 35 maf each year. The range of wastage is between 122.804 maf to 0.787 maf. This shows the Indus River is highly erratic. Therefore it needs to build several storage dams to support irrigated agriculture, provide jobs, bring prosperity and create food for its rapidly growing population and for export. This will prevent terrorism.

* For no dams, in 2010, about 22% of Pakistan was destroyed causing loss of $ billions in property and killed 2000 people, besides displacing millions of population. Again in 2011, rains hit the same areas causing more destruction.

* The other serious issue faced by Pakistan is the salinity, sodicity, and water logging in the Indus basin irrigated lands, rendering about 20 million acres of irrigated lands out of cultivation. The world’s largest irrigation system is without its drainage system since its construction, about 150 years ago. The saline drainage effluent is accumulated as groundwater. Unfortunately, the drainage effluent that becomes groundwater is pumped and used for the irrigation of lands due to shortage of canal water. This injects another 350 million tons of injurious salts in the soil each year.

* WAPDA started two drainage schemes naming, SCARP and NDP on wrong concepts. Both schemes failed wasting billions of dollars. After that WAPDA abandoned the drainage schemes as a bad job. The colossal canal irrigation system is now without drainage system.

* During the partition of India, Pakistan was compensated with a dam on the Indus at (Tarbela) and a dam on Jhelum River at (Mangla). Both these dams rapidly silted up by 6.5 maf. This is a great loss of water. On the contrary, India was allowed to divert the perennial flows of two eastern rivers that are Ravi and Bias, depriving Pakistan of its perennial flow and gave in return time-based storage water. Pakistan was given part-time storage-based non-perennial water for a limited period depending on the life of dam. Who will now compensate this huge loss of 6.5 maf of water periodically occurring all the time?

* In 1959, I discovered Khajuri Katch dam site on Gomal River. The site was highly appreciated by our consultants, namely HARZA International. Work started on the dam. Unfortunately there was no progress. The dam was only completed in 2012 that is after 52 years delay. The canal network is now being completed with the help of the Government of USA.

* In 1961, I was appointed in Dams investigation Division. I discovered 12 mega, multipurpose dam sites. WAPDA, ignored these dams. All these projects are unique some of these are quoted above.