The Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry has said that construction of new dams especially the Kalabagh dam is a must to meet the water and energy requirements of the country.

In a statement issued in Lahore today, President LCCI Malik Tahir Javaid said water scarcity in Sindh and other parts of the country is just because of not constructing Kalabagh Dam.

He said the dam if constructed will supply over 4 million acre feet additional water to Sindh.

The President said that the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry has already feared that water crisis will hit the agriculture sector of Punjab and Sindh as country has no big water reservoirs while water storage capacity in Terbela and Mangla dams has considerably gone down, therefore, Kalabagh dam is a must for the country.

He said that it will be better if anti-Kalabagh elements play role for early construction of this mega project instead of fueling provincial conflict.

Malik Tahir Javaid said that the Kalabagh dam is inevitable for the progress and prosperity of the country as it will produce power at an average cost of 2 rupees per kilowatt hour.

He said that this cheap power will annually displace costly power worth approximately 300 billion rupees with consequential savings of costly oil imports.