Kalabagh Dam shelved forever

[mujahideen]

Kalabagh Dam shelved forever

LAHORE-The govt has finally decided to shelve the controversial Kalabagh Dam project forever owing to the tremendous objection of the different stake-holders.

This was stated by Federal Minister for Water and Power Raja Pervez Ashraf here on Monday.

Addressing a crowded Press conference at WAPDA House, he said that the PPP govt was a symbol of Federation and 'we cannot do anything going against the sovereignty of the country, so we have decided to do away with such kind of projects'.

He said that controversy over Kalabagh Dam project had reached an alarming stage that was threatening the unity of the Federation.

When asked about the expenses and funds, the Minister said that the funds allocated for the project would be utilised on some other viable project to get rid of the loadshedding menace.

The Minister hoped that water level would be improved in the reservoirs, which would add 500 MW in addition. He said that next three months were crucial to resolve power crisis and the nation should bear with the govt over the ongoing power crisis.

He said that there would be no loadshedding by next year end. He said that the govt would ensure the implementation of the decision of closing down of all major commercial centres and shopping plazas at 9 pm from June 1 to help overcome power crisis.

He said that these steps would have to be taken to save power for at least 90 days.

The Minister was confident that as a consequence of the steps taken by the govt loadshedding would be finished by end of next year.

He, however, said it was a long-term project, as development of infrastructure would take about five years. He said 1,000MW of electricity would be added to the national grid by way of improvement of generation capacity of the existing power houses.

He said that construction of Bhasha Dam would start next year besides the competition of Mangla raising project.

APP adds: Raja Pervez Ashraf on Monday said that the government is committed to eliminate the power crisis.

The minister said this while speaking on the occasion of bids opening ceremony of 500 MW each Independent Power Projects at Faisalabad and Dadu. He said the government is taking steps by adopting rationale mechanism to generate more electricity through private sector. He said the government is also pursuing liberal policy to rebuild the investors' confidence and all possible support will be provided to facilitate them in this respect.

The bids were opened by the bid evaluation committee in the presence of representatives of the bidding parties and the media. The Minister said the present energy crisis was a great challenge for the government that would be tackled prudently with cooperation of all stakeholders.

He opined that the present government believes in processing all projects with transparency and observed that there would be no compromise on transparency.

He said it is for the first time in the country's history that bids of about US$ one billion worth projects were being opened in public in presence of the national and international media.

He said the government welcomes the investors and will facilitate them for development of the projects.

He said that bids for another 1200 MW power projects have been invited and will also be opened in the presence of media on June 30. He expressed the hope that due to the measures being taken by the government, loadshedding will be eliminated from the country by August 14 next year.

The bid evaluation committee informed that the bids would be evaluated in accordance with the requirements of the Request for Proposals (RFPs) within the prescribed time.

The ceremony was held at Private Power and Infrastructure Board (PPIB) which was attended by Managing Director PPIB Fayyaz Elahi, all Directors of PPIB and other senior government officials of Finance, NEPRA and Ministry of Water and Power.

Online adds: Pervez Ashraf said that the 62-point constitutional package finalised by PPP legislators would be tabled in the parliament after the budget and after consultations with all segments of the society.

He informed that the suggestion to cut the tenure of the Chief Justice of Supreme Court is being under consideration but it is not final and the possibility of any changing cannot be ruled out.

Responding to a question, the minister underlined that the constitutional package is the need of the hour and reflects the aspirations of people of the country, adding that PPP is the symbol of the federation and no steps would be taken without the consultations.

Commenting on coordination with President Pervez Musharraf, the minister emphasised that the working relationship with him (Musharraf) would be maintained.

Kalabagh Dam shelved forever | Pakistan | News | Newspaper | Daily | English | Online

 

[Cheetah786]

Excellent progress on its way with dum&crazy .

 

[Neo]

LCCI asks govt to review decision on Kalabagh dam​

Wednesday, May 28, 2008

LAHORE: Federal Water and Power Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf has said the shortage of energy is one of the biggest challenges the nation is facing at the moment.

He said the menace of loadshedding would be controlled by the end of August as a contingency plan to cope with the situation had been put in place.

He made the remarks during a visit to the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry on Tuesday. During the talks, LCCI President Mohammad Ali Mian raised the issue of Kalabagh dam. LCCI Vice President Shafqat Saeed Piracha and former president Bashir A Baksh were also present.

The minister said the government alone could not solve the issue of energy shortage and for that purpose it was in dire need of the private sector, which should come forward to ensure the success of govt’s energy conservation programme.

He said the government had decided to put on hold the controversial Kalabagh dam project as controversy over the issue had reached an alarming level that was threatening the unity of the Federation.

The minister hoped that water level would improve in reservoirs, which would produce additional 500 megawatts of power. The next three months, he said, would be crucial to solve the power crisis and the nation should bear with the govt during the current crisis.

Blaming the previous government for the ongoing energy crisis, the minister said no roadmap was given in that regard, adding however the government would ensure implementation of its decision of closing down all major commercial centres and shopping plazas at 9pm from June 1 to help overcome the power problem.

These steps were being taken to save power for at least 90 days, he said, adding 1,000MW of electricity would be added to the national grid by way of improvement in generation capacity of existing power houses.

He said the construction of Basha dam would start next year besides the completion of Mangla raising project. “The government is taking steps by adopting a rational mechanism to generate more electricity through the private sector. The government is also pursuing a liberal policy to rebuild investors’ confidence and all possible support will be provided to facilitate them in this respect,” he said.

Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry President Mohammad Ali Mian, on the occasion, demanded the federal government review its decision on Kalabagh dam as it was not the issue of Punjab alone rather it was connected with the whole country. The acute shortage of water and power, he said, had put the very survival of the country at stake.

Throwing his full weight behind the government’s energy conservation programme, Mohammad Ali said the energy to be conserved through this programme should be utilised to keep the industrial wheel moving as it was the biggest victim of power shortage.

He urged the minister to focus on containing line losses as it would help the government bridge the demand and supply gap. Citing the example of China where more than 70 per cent of electricity was being generated through coal and hydel means, he stressed the need of expediting work on alternative energy resources including coal, wind and solar.

Friday off rejected: The traders’ community, during talks with the power minister at the LCCI, refused to close markets on Friday.

Anjuman-e-Tijran President Muhammad Ashraf Bhatti, who is also executive committee member of LCCI, rejected the plan of Friday off and said it was not viable for them. Before Ashraf Bhatti could give further explanation, LCCI President Mohammad Ali Mian intervened and snubbed him. After that, no one discussed the issue with the minister.

Govt seeks private sector’s help to combat power crisis

 

[Cheetah786]

LCCI asks govt to review decision on Kalabagh dam​

Wednesday, May 28, 2008

LAHORE: Federal Water and Power Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf has said the shortage of energy is one of the biggest challenges the nation is facing at the moment.

He said the menace of loadshedding would be controlled by the end of August as a contingency plan to cope with the situation had been put in place.

He made the remarks during a visit to the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry on Tuesday. During the talks, LCCI President Mohammad Ali Mian raised the issue of Kalabagh dam. LCCI Vice President Shafqat Saeed Piracha and former president Bashir A Baksh were also present.

The minister said the government alone could not solve the issue of energy shortage and for that purpose it was in dire need of the private sector, which should come forward to ensure the success of govt’s energy conservation programme.

He said the government had decided to put on hold the controversial Kalabagh dam project as controversy over the issue had reached an alarming level that was threatening the unity of the Federation.

The minister hoped that water level would improve in reservoirs, which would produce additional 500 megawatts of power. The next three months, he said, would be crucial to solve the power crisis and the nation should bear with the govt during the current crisis.

Blaming the previous government for the ongoing energy crisis, the minister said no roadmap was given in that regard, adding however the government would ensure implementation of its decision of closing down all major commercial centres and shopping plazas at 9pm from June 1 to help overcome the power problem.

These steps were being taken to save power for at least 90 days, he said, adding 1,000MW of electricity would be added to the national grid by way of improvement in generation capacity of existing power houses.

He said the construction of Basha dam would start next year besides the completion of Mangla raising project. “The government is taking steps by adopting a rational mechanism to generate more electricity through the private sector. The government is also pursuing a liberal policy to rebuild investors’ confidence and all possible support will be provided to facilitate them in this respect,” he said.

Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry President Mohammad Ali Mian, on the occasion, demanded the federal government review its decision on Kalabagh dam as it was not the issue of Punjab alone rather it was connected with the whole country. The acute shortage of water and power, he said, had put the very survival of the country at stake.

Throwing his full weight behind the government’s energy conservation programme, Mohammad Ali said the energy to be conserved through this programme should be utilised to keep the industrial wheel moving as it was the biggest victim of power shortage.

He urged the minister to focus on containing line losses as it would help the government bridge the demand and supply gap. Citing the example of China where more than 70 per cent of electricity was being generated through coal and hydel means, he stressed the need of expediting work on alternative energy resources including coal, wind and solar.

Friday off rejected: The traders’ community, during talks with the power minister at the LCCI, refused to close markets on Friday.

Anjuman-e-Tijran President Muhammad Ashraf Bhatti, who is also executive committee member of LCCI, rejected the plan of Friday off and said it was not viable for them. Before Ashraf Bhatti could give further explanation, LCCI President Mohammad Ali Mian intervened and snubbed him. After that, no one discussed the issue with the minister.

Govt seeks private sector’s help to combat power crisis

Excellent idea shut down trade to save energy next step shut down industry to save energy.
what are they going to shut down next oh yeah he did say Good old politics he said she said and Zero Action.

 

[niaz]

It reminds me of an interview of Hakim Ali Zardari ( father of Asif) published the Irshad Haqqani's column during BB's second term. Hakim Zardari is reported to have said that you can point to me one thousand benefits of Kala Bagh Dam, I will not agree to it because 90% benefit will go to Punjab.

This is the finest example of democratically elected govt shooting itself in the foot. I agree with the assertion that it will take 159 years for Pakistan to become a developped nation. Pakistan will rather import $600 per ton fuel oil for power generation (the bill at current price levels will be $2-billion per year for furnace oil alone) than generate cheap hydro electricity along with improved water availability!!!! IMO this is economic suicide.

With the decision makers with zero economic sense and all decisions based on political expediency; there is only one way Pak economy will go; that is DOWN. People deserve what they elect. They have elected a bunch of thieves and nincompoops so they have to suffer for it.

 

[maqsad]

Why is Kalabagh Dam failure being blamed 100% on the headless chickens that just took power? Musharaff had 8 years to build Kalabagh dam and he didn't even start.

 

[EagleEyes]

niaz,

Add to that Mr. Zardari was trying to act "smart" in the interview by suggesting to convert to the Ethanol, a biofuel. What kind of retarded minds do we have! Then they talk about roti, kapra aur makaan.

 

[Proud to be Pakistani]

http://www.waterinfo.net.pk/pdf/kbd.pdf

A Nice Info About Kala Bagh Dam.

 

[BATMAN]

Why is Kalabagh Dam failure being blamed 100% on the headless chickens that just took power? Musharaff had 8 years to build Kalabagh dam and he didn't even start.

When Musharraf took over the top priority was to take Pakistan out of bankrputcy state.
Than was the war threat and in between earth quake!
Still he organised debates on TV and worked hard to convince the opponents to agree on constrution and even made many changes to the orignal plan in order to neutralize false apprehensions or hinderrences, I would say.
I my self has seen many TV debates involving his own self and other technical experts.
He organised international financers.
Now if you open the link above posted by P2P you will notice that all the report and statistics were done under Musharraf's leader ship.
No wonder even if the website was launched during his governance.
We cannot count 2007.

 

[Neo]

A new round of controversy over Kalabagh​

KARACHI/LAHORE, May 27: While politicians in Sindh and leaders of parties based in the NWFP welcomed the announcement made by Minister of Water and Power Raja Pervez Ashraf that the Kalabagh dam project had been shelved for good, the PPP-led federal government’s decision has stirred a hornet’s nest in Punjab.

The reaction from some quarters in Punjab was so intense that Raja Pervez himself somewhat backtracked on Tuesday and said the project had not been shelved, but rather “put on hold.”

Awami National Party’s president Asfandyar Wali Khan, Muttahida Qaumi Movement chief Altaf Hussain and Sindh Information Minister Shazia Marri were among those who hailed the announcement as a step to strengthen the federation, but farmers’ bodies in Punjab and several political parties described it as an ‘anti-federation move’.

The Jamaat-i-Islami and Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaaf took out separate processions in Lahore and some other cities and towns of Punjab in protest against the minister’s statement.

A government spokesman in Lahore said that it had not been consulted on the matter. And Punjab’s Law Minister Rana Sanaullah said the provincial government would take the matter to the Council of Common Interests.

The Punjab Water Council and the Kissan Board Pakistan termed it an act which could hold the country’s future hostage and something which flew in the face of the government’s own claims to use agriculture as an engine of growth.

“Dropping a project of such an immense importance without even starting a consultation process on it bespeaks of the government’s way of decision making,” they said.

PML-Q leader Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi said the government’s decision had no public mandate.

He said the move was against the national interest and that “it wipes off all the previous government’s efforts to develop countrywide consensus on the most controversial dam”.

Former Punjab governor Malik Mustafa Khar lashed out at Raja Pervez Ashraf’s statement and said the Kalabagh project was more important than Kashmir and the nuclear issue.

But, the MQM chief, in a statement issued from London, said the Kalabagh dam was a controversial project which had created differences among the federating units. “Such decisions prove that the government is not wasting time and money on non-issues and concentrating on developmental projects keeping in view the aspirations of the people of Pakistan.”

He also welcomed the decision to rename the NWFP as Pakhtoonkhwa and said it was a part of his party’s manifesto. He said the MQM would continue to support all government actions to be taken for the progress of the country.

A new round of controversy over Kalabagh -DAWN - Top Stories; May 28, 2008

 

[Neo]

Editorial: Goodbye, Kalabagh Dam!​

The Federal Water and Power Minister, Raja Pervez Ashraf, has finally said what most governments in the past were unwilling to utter. On Monday he told the press that the government had dropped the Kalabagh Dam project “forever”, as it is “a controversial issue among the provinces”. The old line was: we will build it when all the provinces agree. It was actually “three versus one” because only Punjab wants it. The other three provinces have provincial assembly resolutions against its construction.

Given the political situation in 2008, the fate of Kalabagh Dam was sealed anyway. The ruling PPP has its base in Sindh where opposition to the dam is a part of Sindhi nationalism. It is in coalition with ANP in Islamabad and Peshawar, and ANP says it will, if necessary, physically oppose the construction of the dam. The PPP is also determined to smoke the peace pipe in Balochistan which supports the NWFP and Sindh on the issue. Presumably, it would have been impolitic to assert the old line — we will build it when the provinces agree — as it would have raised the level of bad faith all around.

No one in the past with the best of opportunities and convenient political allies in the recalcitrant provinces could make anyone agree to the dam. President Pervez Musharraf was the best man to try because of his support within the MQM and a very pliant Sindh chief minister in the person of Arab Ghulam Raheem, but both shied away from the topic as they thought they could not survive politically after agreeing to it. Similarly, the MMA clerical government in Peshawar was secretly willing to have the dam but was most reluctant to risk offending the Pakhtun majority in the province.

Punjab is still interested in the Kalabagh Dam, and experts inside Pakistan and at the World Bank support it when it says that the fears of the other provinces are not founded in fact. But the opponents don’t want to hear any expert view. The Sindhi leader Rasul Baksh Paleejo brings his cartload of “research material” to prove that the dam is harmful whenever he is invited to a TV programme to discuss the subject. Also, the world outside is increasingly wary of large dams because of the ecological damage they do to the environment and the suffering they impose on communities they displace. In India, for example, where big dams are planned, civil society movements are afoot to oppose them.

The verdict is that dams, while they produce cheap electricity and store water for irrigation, tend to silt up and become useless with the passage of time. Today all the big dams in Pakistan including Tarbela and Mangla are silted up by 30 percent, and the Mangla wall is to be raised to make it useful for a few more years. The Kalabagh Dam was proposed to be built on the Indus 15 miles north of Kalabagh in Punjab with a height of 260 feet and a length of 11,000 feet with a storage capacity of 6.1 MAF. It was to generate 11,750 kilowatt-hours of cheap electricity and irrigate 2.4 million additional acres. Its cost in 2000 was $10 billion. It was to take 10 to 15 years in construction.

Pakistan is externally under embargo for building nuclear power plants because it didn’t sign the NPT; now it is under a worse internal embargo on the building of dams. Last week, the nationalist Jiay Sindh party demonstrated in Sindh saying it would oppose even the Basha Dam which is not rejected by ANP so far. Basha is a long way off and will take much longer than the gas coming through in the Iran-Pakistan-India pipeline. But one can’t blame people who support the Kalabagh Dam because Pakistan really has no way out of its energy crunch.

The political well-being of the federation stands in the way of any agreement on distribution of our waters. The Indus Basin Treaty between India and Pakistan of 1960 was possible only after Pakistan recognised that an absence of treaty would favour the upper riparian India. As separate states, Sindh and Punjab — like India and Pakistan — would have to have a waters treaty, inclusive of upriver dams, or Sindh would go dry. The NWFP would be forced to go into a treaty with Punjab because of the sheer inequality of power, like India and upper riparian Nepal. But as a federation, Pakistan must pay heed to the increasingly hostile anti-dam sentiment among the federating units.

Pakistan can build the Basha Dam, but in view of the energy emergency it can “devolve” its policy and focus on smaller local dams. There is no doubt that after the abandonment of the Kalabagh Dam, the Iranian gas pipeline project has assumed a crucial make-or-break significance for Pakistan. But this requires a smoother equation with India and more strenuous diplomacy in Tehran and Washington. The needs are all urgent in the short term today; the feasibilities for big dams can be go on but there is a need to go for dams that can be completed in five years. *

Daily Times - Leading News Resource of Pakistan

 

[mujahideen]

Why is Kalabagh Dam failure being blamed 100% on the headless chickens that just took power? Musharaff had 8 years to build Kalabagh dam and he didn't even start.

You are right he should of started it. This projec is a very old one. It was actually studied by the British and if it was anyone who could of built it it was Ayub Khan. I think we should have a referundum on this.

 

[Flintlock]

Why don't they appoint some foreign consultants like Japanese or Europeans to look into its feasibility?

I am quite sure Zardari does not have the necessary knowledge or skills to make the right decision.

 

[araz]

http://www.waterinfo.net.pk/pdf/kbd.pdf

A Nice Info About Kala Bagh Dam.

PP.
Thank you for this really nice post. Kalabagh Dam has always been a source of great controversy and has always aroused emotions. However, till now nobody including the Government has had the balls to call an open national debate on the pros and cons of the project and allowed the parlimentarians to openly debate the issue. To a lot of us it is just an emotive issue, but one without any sound logic to it. you have provided us with fuel on the basis of which a debate can be carried out.
However, I must say the invironmental study has not been shown and it could prove to be an important one.we need to assess the environmental impact of this issue andthen continue this debate
WaSalam
Araz

 

[mujahideen]

Why don't they appoint some foreign consultants like Japanese or Europeans to look into its feasibility?
I am quite sure Zardari does not have the necessary knowledge or skills to make the right decision.

So you think this project is new. Feasibilities have been carried on this dam since the time of the British.