The LCCI Founders Group leaders said in a meeting here that Pakistan direly needed cheap electricity, water for agriculture sector and preventive measures against devastating floods and it all was possible only through construction of big water reservoirs.
Head of Founders Group Ijaz Butt, leaders of the group and former LCCI presidents, Mian Muhammad Ashraf, Syed Mohsin Raza Bukhari, Iftikhar Ali Malik, Tariq Hameed, Sheikh Mohammad Asif, Mian Misbah-ur-Rehman, Shahid Hassan Sheikh, Mian Muzaffar Ali, Farooq Iftikhar, Ijaz A Mumtaz, former Senior Vice President Abdul Basit, incumbent Senior Vice President Almas Hyder, Vice President Nasir Saeed and other leaders of Founders Group also spoke on the occasion.
Ijaz Butt and Mian Muhammad Ashraf said on the occasion that Pakistan is one of the countries where water and power scarcity have become burning issue.
They said that rising population graph can also give birth to severe food security challenges in near future; therefore, we need to plan today for the days to come.
They said that the country needs cheap electricity to run industries and sufficient water for deprived agriculture sector.
They said that the fact should be an eye-opener for all that almost nine million hectors of fertile land is useless just because of water scarcity. Pakistan needs to grow staple crops for its population and solution to this challenge is new dams.
They said that water resources in Pakistan are depleting rapidly and we cannot afford to waste huge amount of water to the sea. They claimed that an opinion gained widespread support across the country that the losses of recent past floods in Pakistan could have been reduced if big dams and water reservoirs are in place.