Kalabagh Dam would have caused more flooding: experts

Former IRSA chief says dam is not a flood-control project



* ANP says dam would have done immense harm to KP, Sindh



By Iqbal Khattak



PESHAWAR: The Kalabagh Dam – had it been built – would have caused flooding rather than averting it, a former chairman of the Indus River System Authority (IRSA) said on Wednesday, while responding to Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani's recent statement about the dam.



"The dam's effect on floods would have been contrary to what the prime minister claimed," said Fatehullah Khan Gandapur, who headed IRSA from 1993 to 1998.



The KP leadership has criticised the PM's statement, and Information Minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain termed the project "a dead horse". "Kalabagh dam is not a flood-control project," Gandapur said while talking to Daily Times on Wednesday. "It is a run-of-the-river project and its design has to be changed if we want to make it a flood-control project," he said.



Gandapur said the dam's construction would have caused reverse flow in the Kabul River, submerging Nowshera district and water-logging the entire Peshawar valley. "Consultants have called the dam's design a failure," he said.



The Awami National Party is in no mood to compromise on its position over the dam. "Their (pro-dam elements) philosophy is to let the whole of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa drown," senior ANP leader Senator Haji Adeel said. "Why doesn't Islamabad look at other feasible projects instead of only eyeing the Kalabagh Dam, which aims to destroy two provinces?" he asked. "There are other projects that, if undertaken, will help you avoid flood and destruction," he said. "Had the Kalabagh Dam been built, it would have sunk Akora Khattak and Jehangira towns in Nowshera district and its effects would also have been felt in Pabbi town," Adeel said.



"Why don't you build dams from where the water is coming?" he asked, adding that Basha Dam would be able to store 800,000 cusecs and Munda Dam 300,000 cusecs of water.



Source: http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2010\08\12\story_12-8-2010_pg7_2

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In Their Eyes

Alphonse Lamartine (21 October 1790 - 28 February 1869), a French writer, poet and politician said:

"If greatness of purpose, smallness of means, and astounding results are the three criteria of human genius, who could dare to compare any great man in modern history with Muhammad? The most famous men created arms, laws and empires only. They founded, if anything at all, no more than material powers which often crumbled away before their eyes. This man moved not only armies, legislations, empires, peoples and dynasties, but millions of men in one-third of the then inhabited world; and more than that, he moved the altars, the gods, the religions, the ideas, the beliefs and souls. . . his forbearance in victory, his ambition, which was entirely devoted to one idea and in no manner striving for an empire; his endless prayers, his mystic conversations with God, his death and his triumph after death; all these attest not to an imposture but to a firm conviction which gave him the power to restore a dogma. This dogma was twofold, the unity of God and the immateriality of God; the former telling what God is, the latter telling what God is not; the one overthrowing false gods with the sword, the other starting an idea with words.

"Philosopher, orator, apostle, legislator, warrior, conqueror of ideas, restorer of rational dogmas, of a cult without images; the founder of twenty terrestrial empires and of one spiritual empire, that is Muhammad. As regards all standards by which human greatness may be measured, we may well ask, is there any man greater than he?"

Lamartine, HISTOIRE DE LA TURQUIE, Paris, 1854, Vol. II, pp. 276-277.

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khyber pukhtoonkhwa flood

KP should get 95 percent of foreign aid: Mian Iftikhar

* Provincial information minister complains KP being ignored

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2010\08\10\story_10-8-2010_pg7_10

Staff Report

PESHAWAR: The government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa called on the federal government on Monday to divert 95 percent of foreign aid to the flood-devastated province.

Expressing anger at the response to floods in the province, provincial Information Minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain said the federal government is not taking the flood devastation in the province “seriously”. He said the Centre should divert 95 percent of aid it gets from the international community to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

“It is important to note where flood devastation has been much and major chunk of international aid should go there,” Hussain said during a news briefing on relief and rescue operations. “Our resources are limited,” Hussain said, adding, “The Centre should take note of the wide scale destruction in our province”.

Ignored: Hussain said the whole province was underwater and last two days of rains have brought miseries for people in areas where flood devastation has not been recorded earlier. “The whole of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is experiencing destruction in the wake of the July 29 flooding,” he said. Hussain said that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was not getting the attention it deserved.

Hussain said Sunday rains killed some 50 people. Some 965 people have been killed since the flooding swept most of the province. “Over 4.2 million people have been affected and more than 100,000 homes were destroyed,” claimed the minister. Responding to a query regarding about an assessment survey that will be carried out by the World Bank, Hussain said the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government would welcome any organisation and international financial institute for the purpose. In the prevailing situation, however, he said the province needs immediate relief and assistance.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Ameer Haider Khan Hoti said on Monday compensation and restoration work “is beyond the resources of the federal and provincial governments”.

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