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Almost in symbolic harmony with the political situation in Balochistan, the small dams in Mekran are bursting like popcorn. After the current rains hit Balochistan, the Shadi Kor Dam burst in Pasni, killing 61 and rendering 25,000 homeless with 25,000 missing. The nation was still absorbing the shock when other dams in Mekran followed suit. The Chalvi Dam in Kolach union council in Pasni tehsil and Gawar Bagh Dam in Turbat district burst Saturday afternoon due to persistent rains and flash floods. Hingol, the biggest seasonal river of Balochistan with a catchment area of more than 2,000 square miles in central Balochistan, has contributed to the disaster on coastal Mekran. The small Chillery Dam in Kolach Gwadar union council disintegrated Saturday, adding to the misery of the local population.
The death toll from the flooding in the province reached 250 on Sunday, with 200 people killed in Shadi Kor and Pasni and 50 dead in Awaran, Turbat, Bella, Khuzdar, and other areas. Up to 20,000 people have been rendered homeless. One cannot overlook the fact that the Pakistan Army and Navy were on hand to rescue the stranded population, extracting corpses from the inundated areas. Had it not been for the armed forces, the disaster in the province could have reached a gigantic scale. Up in the NWFP and the Tribal Areas, dozens of army personnel have gone missing in Tirah trying to rescue people stranded after heavy snowfall.
One must make all due concessions before criticising the quality of the small-dam building in Pakistan in general, but specifically in Balochistan. The rains have been historically unprecedented although the Balochistan landscape shows deep-cut ancient riverbeds signalling heavy precipitation in the past. As in the past, we have been caught with our guard down whenever something out of the ordinary happens although we have the best flood-warning system in the world. People start living on riverbeds and the provincial authorities allow that to happen. Cities neglect drainage systems on the assumption that the rains will rarely fall, with the result that whenever there is heavy unexpected rain the urban population goes through a trauma and there are billions of rupees of loss to property.
The small dams in Balochistan were built with the fatal mindset that they would mostly be dry and that rainfall would never come to the region. If one admits of irony here, some of the dams that have burst during the past week were constructed by the armed forces, even though one has learnt to rate the army?Ts engineering capacity higher than the one available in the civilian sector. But something was wrong with the construction and standards of these dams that they have so quickly collapsed in the face of swollen waters. The dams are supposed to collect floodwaters, not collapse under them. The flaws in engineering must be investigated now that the government should be thinking of repairing the dams. As a word of caution one must add here that the current levels of acceptance of engineering skills is totally flawed. A barrage on the Indus inaugurated by ex-prime minister Mir Zafarullah Jamali has already sprung leaks, endangering the population living around and below it.
The dams in Balochistan were one rare example of how the federation has ?ocared? for Balochistan, the country?Ts richest province in terms of natural wealth. The irony is that the Baloch insurgents recently rocketed the under-construction Mirani Dam. But Islamabad must persist in its policy of constructing more dams in the province and initiating more projects that will directly benefit the Baloch people. Equally, as one recognises the special attention being paid by Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz to the economic development of the province, one has to point out that the bursting dams are not good PR for his plans. *
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_14-2-2005_pg3_1 |
