The Bhasha Dam will also leave adverse impact on Sindh River’s Ecology and Communities.
Saffeer Hussain
Sindh River is not just a river, but the life. Hundreds of millions lives depend on it, and the province of Sindh is entirely dependent on it. Additionally, the Indus civilization is linked to the Sindh River.
It’s unfortunate that certain projects have been launched by Pakistan authorities that certainly will leave adverse impact on Sindh River, ecology and the communities depending on it.
After the British conquered Sindh, no one wanted to change the flow of the Indus River, as the British knew that the Indus Valley had only one way to acquire water, and that was through the Indus River. But as usual, from the start, Punjab always wanted to fill its river from Indus River’s water. Many shameful actions were taken to stop the flow of the Indus River, and Punjab was always at the forefront.
In 2006, the dictator Pervaiz Musharraf initiated the idea to build the Bhasha Dam on the Indus River. In 2011, then PPP premier Yousaf Raza Gilani, started work on it. However, as usual, Pakistan did not have the funds to build the dam. Pakistan requested world authorities, including the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank, to provide funds for the development of the Bhasha Dam. After a survey, the world bodies urged that the Bhasha Dam should not be built, as the study suggested that huge losses would occur either naturally or morally. Afterwards, they did not provide funds. However, the plan to build the Bhasha Dam was started from the starting point of the Indus River, beside Chakas City, which is in Giligit Baltistan linked to Karakorum Highway. The government planned that a 127-kilometer-long wall could be built between two mountains that could stop 7.5 million cusecs water, and whatever the flow of the Indus River, they must store 6.0 million cusecs water. In terms of energy, 4500 megawatts per day could be generated.
The Bhasha Dam would cover an area of 25 thousand acres, in which 25 villages would have been destroyed. According to the survey of the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, 28 thousand people would have been disturbed or put out of their homes. However, that survey was wrong. About 35 thousand people had been displaced. The World Bank and the Asia Development Bank had claimed that if the Bhasha Dam had been constructed according to plan, it would be the world’s most dangerous dam. Furthermore, the land on which it would be constructed is located in the plate of the earth, and in that area, the most dangerous earthquakes had occurred in a couple of quarters. So, the Gilgiti people were strictly opposed to that dangerous dam.
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Saffeer Hussain, hailing from Larkana Sindh, is a student of Business Administration NUML University in Islamabad.
