KARACHI: National Business Group chairman and president of Pakistan Businessmen and Intellectuals Forum Mian Zahid Hussain said the construction of dams is a national security issue that cannot be ignored anymore otherwise water scarcity will damage agriculture and industrial sector prompting imports for food items and stocking unemployment as well as hunger.
He said ignoring construction of dams amid growing population is a perfect recipe for economic disaster. Water sacristy has reached to an alarming level which will shatter the economy and promote hunger if left unattended, he said.
Mian Zahid Hussain said fancy projects are being preferred over critical projects for decades while billions have been borrowed for useless projects, which is against the national interests. He said water scarcity is a national security issue for which the government and opposition must unite without any delay.
He said that PTI seemed serious about the construction of dams in the beginning but later other issues were considered important despite the fact that water availability has come down by over 1000 cubic meter since 1951.
Pakistan can only save ten percent of the river water against the global average of 40 percent while it has a capacity to save water for the need of ten days against the US capacity of 900 days.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2021
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