Every monsoon season, floods return to Pakistan. And with them comes a familiar chorus. Pundits and politicians call for more dams. Critics push back, warning of ecological, financial and social costs.

Year after year, the arguments repeat, but the water still rises, crops are destroyed and lives are lost while the underlying problem remains unresolved.

So what does Pakistan really need? The answer is not either-or. Pakistan does need dams. Hydropower is one of the cheapest and cleanest sources of energy available to us and expanding it is essential if we are serious about reducing dependence on imported fuels. Reservoirs also provide crucial storage for agriculture, especially during dry months, and they can help regulate moderate flows in the Indus system. To reject dams altogether would ignore these benefits.

But dams are not, and cannot be, the primary solution to catastrophic flooding. The Indus in full flood carries volumes no storage structure in Punjab or Sindh could ever absorb. Once reservoirs fill, their operators must release water downstream, which means the same floodwaters spread across villages and farmland anyway. To believe that dams alone can shield Pakistan from climate-driven disasters is to misread both science and geography.

Global........

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