Abbasi-led body to finalize water data: Building of new dams
By Khaleeq Kiani
ISLAMABAD, May 5: The Parliamentary committee on Water Resources led by Senator Nisar Memon on Wednesday decided to leave to the ANG Abbasi-led technical committee to finalize the overall water availability figures to plan any future dam.
This decision was taken when provincial representatives and members of the parliamentary committee raised objections that Terms of References (TORs) of the Nisar Committee did not include the issue of water availability and as such, it should avoid overstepping.
The parliamentary committee told Mr ANG Abbasi, the chairman of technical committee on water resources who also attended the meeting, that water availability figures to be finalized by his committee would be taken as final and hence it should expedite finalization of these figures.
Mr Abbasi told the meeting that he would be holding a meeting of his committee soon and work out water availability data. Mr Memon told a group of reporters that the parliamentary committee had asked Wapda chairman to give more data about the water availability because the committee had to know the real picture for its own understanding although it was not its job and a decision on the construction of future dams would depend on these water availability figures.
He said the committee also discussed as to how Pakistan could divert around 7-8 million acres feet of water from Chitral river in case Afghanistan went ahead with reported plans to construct a dam on the river Kabul without signing a water treaty with Islamabad to ensure its share.
The committee also reviewed the river flows of both Eastern and Western rivers in the overall context of water availability, the possibilities or India plans to construct diversions, dams or irrigate its barren land on Eastern rivers and their impact on Pakistan's irrigation system.
He, however, declined to divulge what picture emerged from this review saying it could not be divulged until figures were finalized and Wapda had to work more on that direction.
Responding to a question, Mr Memon said the parliamentary committee on water resources would not touch the 1991 water accord because it was a sacred document and a settled issue. However, it would look into questions relating to objections and differences among stakeholders about interpretations of some clauses of the accord.
He said the committee had decided to visit all provinces starting from May 9-10 in Peshawar, followed by May 14- 15 to Punjab, May 17-18 to Sindh and May 19-20 to Balochistan.
In the provinces, the committee would meet leaders of those political leaders who had no representation in assemblies. In Sindh, he said the committee was scheduled to meet Kalabagh dam opponents like Qadir Magsi, Bashir Qureshi and Sindh opposition leader Nisar Khoro and visit areas which were directly affected by the sea water.
He said the committee was launching a campaign in the national and regional press to create awareness about efficient utilization of water resources.
