Friday, June 23, 2006

globalwarming and our dire need of dams

i was watching this discussion about global warming and how we're on the edge of a precipice.a few years ago i used to pooh pooh global warming..or like the chinese/indians or third world countries in general blame it all on the west.even though the west is primarily responsible for getting the world where it is right now as far as global warming is concerned that does not mean we carry on in the same vein cos the consequences would be apocolyptic. it might be unfair to us but we dont really have a choice. we need to invest more in eco friendly energy sources as well as industrial output.
now i really think we need dams.as many as we can build and obviously as eco friendly as possible. for starters we are a poor agrarian economy.secondly energy is way to expensive and unreliable in this country. third we really need to marshall our water sources better.besides dams we need to line our canals so that seepages are limited. however one dam that is truly needed will never be built.thats kalabagh.there ive said..call me a lahori/punjabi insensitive domineering bastard if u want but kalabagh has the most merit. from my understanding dams store water not consume them. secondly kalabagh naturally or geographically is in such an area which is best suited to store the maximum amount of water.for example the monsoon rains dont go upto basha.basha can only catch the water of the melting glaciers. secondly kabul river links up with the indus before kalabagh and after tarbela(huge source of water.) flooding would almost be eliminated in punjab and sindh. large tracts of balochistan will become arable.indus delta will be preserved cos there'll be water all year round to send down kotri(ill elaborate on this later on).and finally lots of cheap energy will be produced. the negatives are 80000-100000 ppl will be displaced. parts of NWFP will be submerged. punjab will get royalty i suppose.as for sindh not getting enough water i curse the people who screwed sindh out of its share of water in the past cos the mistrust has never gone away.as for the indus delta case this is how kalabagh would help.during the monsoon season it so happens that for four months or so theres plenty of water in the indus.infact theres more water in the indus then is required.hence the annual floods.but when the winter comes and theres no melting snows and rainfall the situation in kotri downstream becomes critical.what kalabagh would do is store the rainfall and melting snows surplus.now kalabagh is not the end all and be all...canals need to be lined as well..its not an either/or situation.suggestion to the contrary are welcome as usual

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home