Atif Pedia

Dam, structure that blocks the flow of a river, stream, or other waterway. Some dams divert the flow of river water into a pipeline, canal, or channel. Others raise the level of inland waterways to make them navigable by ships and barges. Many dams harness the energy of falling water to generate electric power. Dams also hold water for drinking and crop irrigation, and provide flood control. The oldest known human-made dams were built more than 5,000 years ago in arid parts of the Middle East to divert river water to irrigate crops. Today there are more than 500,000 dams worldwide. The vast majority of these are small structures less than 3 m (10 ft) tall. Engineers regard dams that measure more than 15 m (50 ft) high as large dams. About 40,000 large dams exist in the world today.

The construction on Diamer-Bahsha dam is about to kick off. With Kalbabagh dam buried under the heavy dust of political controversies the Government of Pakistan has left with no other alternative except going for the Diamer-Basha dam to meet its growing energy needs. 

Necessary is its construction for the ailing economy of Pakistan, as being built on the river which is the life line for this country, the dam is not free from a string of controversies and issues either.

The first controversy aroused when the dam’s nomenclature surfaced with a name quite alien to the people-Bhasha, a small part of the Koshistan District in KPK. It was after much hue and cry on the par of the populace of GB that government condescended to incorporate a local name, Diamer, thus changing it to Diamer-Bhasha dam.