【英语国际】巴基斯坦洪灾再次引发建大坝争议

The devastation from Pakistan's worst floods in a generation has sparked renewed debate about a controversial mega-dam project that some believe could have helped mitigate the disaster.

The Kalabagh dam project on the Indus River in Punjab province in central Pakistan has been on the drawing board for four decades. But it has been consistently delayed amid fears from those downstream that the dam would give Punjab, Pakistan's richest and most politically powerful province, an inordinate amount of control over the country's water resources.

The dam's proponents say it would add to Pakistan's ability to store water from the Indus during the heavy summer monsoon, reducing flooding and providing an extra source of water for the dry season.

'The present destruction and calamity could have been prevented,' said Shams-ul Mulk, a former chief of Pakistan's Water and Power Development Authority, who has championed the dam's construction. 'If the Kalabagh dam had been built, this flood could have been tamed in the reservoir.'

The controversy added to tensions over the response to the past two weeks of flooding, which began in the north and spread south along the course of the Indus, killing an estimated 1,500 people.

President Asif Ali Zardari returned to Pakistan on Tuesday after a 10-day trip to France and the United Kingdom, an absence that sparked intense criticism from the media and opposition parties. Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani has rebutted those criticisms, saying he is the head of government and is leading the rescue efforts.

Relief efforts have increasingly taken on an ideological dimension. Pakistan's army and foreign donors continued to ferry aid to survivors of the flooding on Tuesday, as Pakistan's weak civilian government has requested more aid from foreign countries as it seeks to battle the influence of Islamist groups.

The United Nations says the flooding has affected 13 million people, damaged or destroyed 300,000 houses and left thousands of acres of crops wiped out. The U.N.'s World Food Program estimates that six million people face food shortages due to destruction of wheat and rice crops.

巴基斯坦数十年来最严重洪水带来的破坏性引发了人们对本存争议的一个巨型大坝项目的新一轮争论，有人认为这座大坝本可以减轻洪灾破坏程度。

Associated Press巴基斯坦信德省的洪区百姓在搬运财产。位于巴基斯坦中部旁遮普省、坐落在印度河上的卡拉巴戈大坝项目四十年来一直都处于筹划阶段。但由于下游地区担忧大坝将给予旁遮普省这个巴基斯坦最富裕也最具政治影响力的省份对该国水资源过度的控制，该项目一再推迟。

而大坝的拥护者说，它能在夏季雨季期间增加巴基斯坦从印度河的蓄水能力，不仅能减少洪灾，也为旱季提供了又一处供水来源。

巴基斯坦前水利及能源发展局局长穆尔克(Shams-ul Mulk)说，如今造成的破坏和灾难本来是可以避免的。这位修建大坝的支持者说，假若当初建造了卡拉巴戈大坝，这次洪水可能就被控制在水库里了。

这场争论加剧了由过去两周内因洪灾应对情况所引发的紧张气氛。洪水开始于北部，后沿着印度河蔓延至南方，目前估计已有1500人丧生。

巴基斯坦总统扎尔达里(Asif Ali Zardari)结束了对法英两国为期十天的访问后于周二回国，而他未能及时回国引发了媒体和反对党的强烈批评。总理吉拉尼(Yousuf Raza Gilani)驳斥了这些批评，说自己是政府首脑，负责领导救援工作。

救援工作呈现出愈加明显的意识形态特点。由于在抗灾过程中还要应对伊斯兰组织的影响，实力不济的巴基斯坦政府请求获得更多的外国援助，周二巴基斯坦军队和外国援助机构乘坐船只继续向洪灾难民发放救援物资。

联合国说，此次洪灾使1300万人受到影响，破坏及损毁房屋30万座，数千英亩的庄稼被毁。联合国世界粮食计划署(World Food Program)估计，六百万人将因小麦和水稻被毁而面临食品短缺。