Construction of Kalabagh Dam: 'Provinces should solve issue with consensus'

Speaker Punjab Assembly, Rana Muhammad Iqbal Khan has said provinces should solve the issue of construction of Kalabagh Dam and other dams with consensus. The Speaker PA said that Pakistan would raise its voice on every forum and would not compromise on its legitimate rights.
He was addressing the two-day international Conference on Water Resources Engineering & Management at University Of Engineering and Technology (UET) Lahore, here on Monday. Vice Chancellor UET General Muhammad Akram (Retd) was present on the occasion. He also said that Pakistan knows how to fight for its rights with India or any other country in the world.
The Speaker PA said Pakistan wanted peace in the world and would not allow anybody to destroy its peace. He also said that university has made name and recognition on international level and now the university is on top 500 universities of the world and now UET is among the top 100 universities of Asia. He said that in education top priority should be given to higher education.
Iqbal said that God has blessed Pakistan with natural resources and if these resources were used in a positive way Pakistan would be a prosperous country. The Speaker PA said that education was always the top priority of the Punjab government adding that Punjab was the land of five rivers and despite that there is a shortage of water and eatables in the province. Water management experts should give their proposals to overcome the water crisis.
Vice Chancellor UET, General Muhammad Akram (Retd) said that today's conference is very important although its scope has been confined to engineering and management of water resources. It is a great fact that we are facing a situation where our rivers are prone to serious manipulation by upper riparian. This can strangulate our agrarian economy. Hence, there is a need to store every drop of water, whether it comes through rivers or local rains.
Akram said that government should take steps like building new dams to store water when released by upper riparians. Secondly, feasibility of storing rain or floodwater in plain areas be examined. This can be done by developing lakes and large ponds astride the rivers and nullahs. These can be filled during flood season and water can flow back in the river during lean period.
For providing the rivers in the first place ponding capacity at existing barrages and weirs should be increased. In next phase, depending on the distance and the gradient from one barrage to another of ponding sections may be developed. Since general lay of grand in Punjab is from NE to SW, therefore, flood by pass channels should be planned preferably on right bank of river so that water may easily flow back.