Dr. Habib-ur-Rehman, S.I.
The government has not built large dams or water reservoirs and trend of small dams and water reservoirs is not prevalent. Building large water reservoirs require a lot funds while small dams may be built with small funding while small water reservoirs may be built even without public funding by the people as they had 40 years before.
The people of villagers may be encouraged to build small water reservoirs, as each village had at least 2 small water reservoirs in the past to meet the human and animal needs including the cloth washing for the whole year. The government may direct the district administration to help and encourage people to build small water reservoirs where feasible. The government may term building small water reservoirs as mandatory for each of the villages and also in and around cities where possible so that water may be retained in the small water reservoirs for useful purposes. This will help retain and raise the continuously deepening underground water level.
The proposal is feasible and go a long way towards the water conservation. The proposed small water reservoirs may be built by giving scientific out look so that bunds are strong enough to hold water throughout the year. It has not been possible for us to build big dams/ water reservoirs due to number of reasons; political divide and financial constraints, therefore the government should go for building small dams and low cost or zero cost small water reservoirs.
The villagers may built small water reservoirs on their own as they had been building 40 years back. The district administration may be directed to manage building small water reservoirs. The government should also consider building small water reservoirs on running steams or on ‘barsati nullah’ (wade) where possible. This is how we would be able to have many water reservoirs in the country and it will always be possible to build more and more.
Conservation of water is badly needed and if we failed to build water reservoirs, our coming generations will face sever water shortage issues and God forbid people will fight and kill each other to get water for their survival. Under the circumstances, the countries will fight wars on water issues and disputes. Therefore, it is obligatory on us to contribute in water conservation.
The government should facilitate building small and low cost water reservoirs on war footing; sooner the better. A book titled, ‘Pakistan: A hard country’ by Anatol Lieven is an eye opener in this case.
Email: drhabib56@yahoo.com
