An editorial in the Rising Kashmir highlights a challenge mostly ignored by the civil society, but the message is tainted by unrealistic expectations
Mission Dal
The biggest challenge facing the state government in saving the polluted Dal Lake is to get the implementation mechanism of its ambitious project right. The government’s flagship scheme to revive Dal under the new boost of funds still needs to be vetted on the score. There are of course different ways to implement Dal Lake conservation projects successfully. Which will the government choose?
In the last four months when Kashmir was in deep turmoil, Dal and Nageen Lake became the silent victims of the conflict. Already in deep mess, these lakes have reached the verge of extinction. If one looks around the Dal these days it has been marginalized to a big sewage. A set of works by the LAWDA to save the famous water bodies sheds some light on the government’s thinking on mechanism for implementation. As with getting the awareness, new machinery, infrastructure, rehabilitation, public-private partnership is a preferred mode. This could split the burden of financing the conservation project and will be the precursor to thwart the unprecedented corruption known to plague the project for years now.
The sharing of the financial burden will for sure guarantee accountability from each of the parties involved. If government wants to attract private partnership in the project, they should give various incentives and perks to private developers to attract their interest. State government for example will be required to provide the revenue sharing models from the various tourism projects, which can come up after the cleaning of the lakes. This could be a radical and welcome shift having the impact beyond the cleaning and maintenance of lakes. If public-private partnership is implemented in the Dal project, Kashmir could get a world class infrastructure in sustainable eco-tourism as the free flowing funds will attract new technology, globally used to save environment from the tourist load. Government could attract private sector in saving Dal Lake by giving them avenues to create excellent tourist resorts near these famous water bodies. The government could also attract private partnership by detailed marketing projects, which can bring millions of tourists to Kashmir every year. To have private sector involvement is saving the Dal, state government should be transparent about the concept of freebies the politicians and civil servants usually demand from private sector in such mega projects. Needless to say to implement such bold decisions Jammu and Kashmir government has to take a real challenge to ensure all this is done and implemented on the waters which are always turbulent and now very dirty as well.