Energy: Thousands protest new dam in Pakistan

Thousands of protesters in Pakistan have protested against a proposed dam in the north-west of the country. Authorities say around 7,000 protesters took part in the rally against the Kalabagh Dam project. The government claims the dam will benefit farmers, generate hydro-electricity and control floods

The project's website says, "Kalabagh Dam Project would be located on river Indus 100 miles south-west of Pakistan’s capital Islamabad.

This multi-purpose project would have a live storage capacity of 6.1 million acre feet (MAF).ides making up for the capacity loss in reservoirs, it would make substantial contribution to firming up the irrigation supplies not only for new projects but additional allocation agreed by the provinces under Water Apportionment Accord (WAA) of 1991. Further, it would add a large amount of cheap hydropower to the National Grid through its 2400 MW (Ultimate 3600 MW) installed power".