LCCI welcomes PM’s concerns over dearth of dams

LAHORE:Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) Tuesday welcomed Prime Minister Imran Khan’s concern, voiced over losses caused by dearth of dams, and urged the government to allocate adequate funds for construction of much-needed reservoirs in the Federal Budget 2022-23.

LCCI Acting President Mian Rehman Aziz Chan told the media that new dams were direly needed for Pakistan as it would not only help generate cheap and sufficient electricity but also avert the threat of food security.

Mian Rehman Aziz Chan said that water shortage was one of the biggest reasons of electricity shortage at the one hand while raising food security challenges on the other.

He said that policy corridors would have to understand that economic growth lies in construction of water reservoirs which are a cheap source of electricity. The government would have to create consensus for the early construction of water reservoirs.

The LCCI acting president said that rising population graph can give birth to severe food security challenges in near future; therefore we have to build water reservoirs including Kalabagh dam at any cost as it would bring huge part of land under cultivation which is currently lying unused due to lack of water.

Mian Rehman Aziz Chan said that everyone knows that the existing dams are constantly silting up leaving ever decreasing capacity to store water. The construction of new dams was desperately needed to store adequate water. According to a conservative estimate, over 30 million acre feet of water is being wasted into the sea because the country has no big water reservoirs to store it.

He said that Prime Minister Imaran Khan have pointed out a serious issue and hoped that the government would allocate adequate funds in the upcoming federal budget.