PML-Q leader Chaudhry Parvez Elahi has urged the government to construct the Kalabagh Dam immediately to ensure permanent safety against floods. He said, "The dam construction is must and a permanent solution to resolve the electricity crisis, water shortage and massive losses of hundreds precious human lives, crops and properties worth billion of rupees hitting the four provinces every year could be saved by controlling the floods."
He further said, "The poor are living under an open sky in Layyah, Dera Ghazi Khan, Rahim Yar Khan Sadiqbad, Alipur and other areas crying over losses of their houses, crops and livestock and inefficiency of the government." He also paid tributes to the military leadership, officers and jawans for carrying out relief and rescue operations in the flood-hit areas but urged the government to be more pragmatic.
"The water causes vast devastation can be stored and used for progress, development and prosperity of Pakistan, only in the past four years more than $30 billion losses have been caused by the floods to the national economy. Besides, 400 people had perished whereas the current estimate of the Kalabagh Dam construction is $9 billion. From this dam not only 3,600MW electricity at the rate of Rs 2.50 per unit can be generated but also Sindh can have four million acres feet, KP 2 2, Balochistan 1.5 and Punjab 2 additionally for irrigation." More rain is forecast in the north after the flash floods inundated several villages in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan provinces.