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Abuse of natural resources

Make no mistake Balochistan is my favourite province though I belong to Punjab. It always is difficult to accept what policy makers are doing in that area. It was after Pakistan went nuclear that the current PM sent me to see what can be done for the area. The nuclear fallout had affected the area adversely and when I parked myself in Dalbandin I realised that much had gone wrong. Garma and grapes had become tasteless and the temperature of the area had risen by at least ten degrees. The problems were further compounded by the test done in Rajasthan and the consequent rise in temperature. It was here that the propaganda about Water shortage was finally put to rest. Chagai the largest district in Balochistan is bigger than KPK put together. The subsoil water there is 60 to 90 feet and the use of that water is possible for high value crops. To start with a summary was sent to the PM indicating the steps to be taken to rehabilitate the area. The project was sent along with the recommended interventions. The project never saw the light of day. The reason as I learned later was that a particular trader of Wheat in Washington would have suffered as a result of wheat produced locally. Since he had political clout the project was lost in the myriads of bureaucracy. Initially the land available was 4.5m acres in Chagai and to the existent landmass under agriculture it would have been 25% of the land available for this activity.

The transformation would have helped not only the country’s granary but also Balochistan. Students from Noshki College were keen to go into agriculture. All that they needed was on-the-job, hands-on performance. This project was sidelined and as done again in the Musharraf regime. An opportunity came Pakistan’s way when the Islamic Development Bank decided to fund it. This was gratefully accepted but before this could be undertaken the players were sidelined. Similarly a project of edible oil Salicornia was started and successfully it was to produce an edible oil plant suing sea water. Two pilot interventions at Keti Bunder and at hub were successfully carried out. The produce was also exported to France where the plants edible aspects were used in gourmet restaurants. That was also lost. That is in the past. No need to lament for I can give you many such incidents of vulgarity with the development process. My memory is not so short and I do not want a la Ghalib to lose my memory.

What is cognitively not understood by our policymakers that Awaran is devoid of trees and therefore is going to be susceptible to natural disasters? Earthquake is just one of many as the TV footage clearly showed. In all the previous episodes not a single tree was damaged by the quake rather the loss of trees and orchards was due to building and land slides. Former East Pakistan is a great example why trees block earthquakes. They have different sort of natural disasters. USA has its own master plan to get natural disasters. My own house was situated in line of the epicenter by almost five kilometres (last earthquake) and I did not feel the quake at all. It was when phone calls started coming in that I realised what a catastrophe had taken place. So the first lesson that one drew from this was that roots of trees absorbed the shocks but to what extent that should be studied by the seismologists. Where is Wapda and its people and why are they not active? Awaran has virtually no trees and hardly any vegetation. So it has a double jeopardy of floods and earthquakes. The second lesson to draw is from Tarbella is (and it has had thousands of quakes) that foundations built on sand absorb a greater amount of shocks. Tarbella would have gone by now if its foundations had not been based on sand. Rock-based intervention may seem to be stronger but that is not so. That Pakistan can emulate the technologies currently being used in Japan to handle these jolts is well-nigh impossible. The reason is the seriousness with which Japan pursues its public interest objectives. We have no idea of public interest and when we intervene it is usually for private benefits.

What interventions? Well, for one why not start forestation in Balochistan’s barren areas. The single most excuse is that there is no water. In Syria [in better times] they started a programme of forestation from Damascus to Aleppo (distance of some 450 kilometres). One line of trees was followed by another a year later. The land was more inhospitable than the area we have in Balochistan. In any case do we really understand the physiographic of the province? Does any settled area policy maker understand the hydrographs of the province? Have we discharged our duties to our brethren? Please do not come up with rationalisations and psychological defence mechanisms. These only aggravate the entire situation. Wapda I am afraid has not discharged its duty and in fact may not have been even aware of its responsibilities. They want financial and powers unlimited. Well give it to them. They want KB and the engineers and their cohorts in Nespak have started a movement for it. All of Nespak are engineers from Wapda or may be more so. So there is a nexus that is required to be changed if not altogether destroyed. The talk of Naulang and Ghabir dam well they should ask the current Wapda chairman as to his mistakes in the planning documents. I am willing to debate these issues [the only way forward to remove varying arguments]. Pakistan is unable to pay for the current debt and pray how will it pay for this debt. KBD is not any additional to Tarbella but a replacement for water lost due to Wapda stupidities as they did not carry out any watershed management with the result they have lost 40% of the storage capacity to siltation. We are begging IMF for loans because of the disaster in planning that we have had. Let the present lobby that is demanding this indicate what will be the cost and what will be the time period of finishing this project. They will be found wanting in both and the evidence is in the form of the past irrigation projects. Go to Mangla dam’s capacity increased that was on the existing structures and they have not been able to keep either the time line or the cost. There is many a difference between the verbal pronouncements. Go to Neelum Jhelum and the management and delivery system. The engineers have a habit of involving non engineers in the complications of the engineering design. What will be the impact and when will it come online. They talk of cheap hydro-electricity and they give a figure that is ridiculous. Once they are on these people will play hell with the system and I am willing to say that they neither have a plan to save the dam site and what further interventions are necessary. Let us not go to far and see any small dam and see the impact of all the finances that have been spent on the glorious schemes of the institutions. And I can go on.

To make the last point Wapda requires a different set of decision makers. Well what about one of the Chairmen from Wapda who made the tall claim that he can line the Nara canal. Does any one have any idea the amount of water that this canal carries? If river transportation was made possible a ship could sail up to Sukkur!!! To recapitulate the requirement is for natural economy to be strengthened. What we envisage as development is not what the people are looking for. It matters little to Balochistan people whether we have a motorway or not. There are interventions for flood management as well. By the way where is the last DG of national disaster management? His exponential experience would have been necessary in the current situation. But then this is Pakistan the land of the naïve. More later at some point in time.

Dr Zafar Altaf, "Abuse of natural resources," Business recorder. 2013-10-05.
Keywords: Social sciences , Social issues , Social needs , Social problems , Social development , Social justice , Balochistan issues , Natural disasters , Earthquakes , Balochistan