Dr. Abdul Razak Shaikh
Diamer Bhasha Dam is proposed plan on the river Indus in Gilgit–Baltistan of Pakistan. Its foundation stone was laid by than Prime Minister Yousif Raza Gillani on 18th October 2011. The dam site is situated near place called BHASHA in Gilgit Baltistans Diamer District, hence the name.
Cost of Diamer Bhasha is 14 Billion Dollars and was stopped due to shortage of funds. On 4th July 2018 Honourable Chief Justice of Pakistan has taken interest for construction of Bhasha Dam and Mohmand Dam, to resolve the water shortage and in this connection appeal made to public for support. The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court gave a donation of one million Pakistani rupees for the construction of the two dams. On 7th Sep 2018 Prime Minister of Pakistan Imran Khan announced a merger of PM-CJP fund in his address to the nation.
PM Imran Khan urged overseas Pakistanis to contribute to dam fund and donate generously on emergency basis due to possible shortage of water by 2025 that can lead to drought like situation in the country. In response many people committed to share in fund.
As of August 2012, the project faced several setbacks due to major sponsors backing out from financing the project, World Bank and Asian Development Bank both refused to finance the project as according to them its location is in disputed territory and asked Pakistan to get a NOC from neighboring India. On 20 August 2013, Finance Minister of Pakistan, Ishaq Dar claimed to have convinced the World Bank (WB) and the Aga Khan Development Network to finance the Diamer-Bhasha Project without the requirement of NOC from India. He also said that the Asian Development Bank, Aga Khan Rural Support Programme (AKRSP) and Aga Khan Foundation had agreed to become lead finance manager for the project.On 27 August 2013, Pakistan’s Finance Minister, Ishaq Dar said that work would start on both Dasu and Diamer-Bhasha Dams simultaneously. He also said that Diamer-Bhasha project would take 10–12 years to complete.On November 7, 2013 the Chairman of WAPDA claimed that his department has received 17,000 acres of land at the cost of PKR 5.5 billion from Government of Gilgit-Baltistan and the Ismaili Community for the construction of the project.On 14 November 2017, Pakistan dropped its bid to have the dam financed under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) framework as China placed strict conditions including on the ownership of the project.
Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah said on Tuesday that he was not against the construction of the Bhasha dam but had some reservations about its location and availability of water in the system in such a quantity that the dam could be filled.Syed Murad Ali Shah said that the Bhasha dam project was originally initiated by the Pakistan Peoples Party government, but objections were raised on its technical issues. Therefore, he insisted, the centre needs to take the federating units in confidence.Elaborating on the water position in the Indus system, CM Sindh version that last year instead of 10 million acre feet (MAF) only 7.5 MAF water was released downstream Kotri.
“As a matter of fact, 25 MAF water is required, otherwise the sea would keep encroaching further upon nearby villages (in the coastal area of Thatta district),” he said. “The history of last 10 years’ water releases downstream Kotri shows that for six years it was less than 10 MAF and then it went down further by two to four MAF.”Honourable Chief Justice of Pakistan on Wednesday also lashed out at critics opposing the construction of dams in the country and said that there is no need for anyone to say about dams, it is matter of Fundamental rights.The main purpose of the dam is water storage, irrigation and generation of electricity and the whole exercise is done by the different expert of national and International level. At present stage all the corners inside and outside the country are agreed to solve the issue of water, if we ignored this time than we country will suffer from very difficult position in future. My view is that Federal Government must get confidence to all provinces and no one will deny about the project, which will save we all.
