Updates from the last months issue

A real dam in Pakistan
Dams are no stuff of fantasia. Between the charged debates for and against high dams (Himal, March 1998), they continue to be built and are sought to be built. A dam project, it seems, never can be wished or protested away; it may be discarded for months, even decades, until someone comes along and gives it the kiss of life. The arguments for such a revival form the building blocks of what is said to be the irrefutable pro-dam logic: quenching the water needs of present and future population, better irrigation facilities, more power, etcetera.

These arguments have now come in handy to the Pakistan government and some technocrats in justifying the proposed construction of the Kalabagh Dam on the Indus River, a project on the back burner since the 1960s. Suddenly this section, with some able support from the print media, is pushing the cause of Kalabagh and more dams as the saviours of a "water-starved" country, its agriculture and power. Suddenly, institution heads like Chaudhry Rashid Khan of Institution of Engineers Pakistan (IEP), have been hit by the realisation that: "We cannot afford to live without the Kalabagh Dam now. It must be built as early as possible." Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, too, is convinced the dam is inevitable for his country.