19 July 2004	Monday	01 Jamadi-us-Saani 1425

ISLAMABAD, July 18: Chief ministers of the four provinces are scheduled to attend a crucial meeting of the parliamentary committee on water resources here on July 20 (Tuesday) to give their viewpoints on the construction of big dams, Dawn has learnt.

"It would be sort of a decisive and final meeting of the Nisar Committee," said an informed source who is also a member of the committee. Chairmen of the Indus River System Authority (Irsa), Federal Flood Commission (FFC), Wapda and technical committee on water resources and deputy chairman of planning commission, provincial ministers and secretaries of irrigation would also attend the meeting.

The meeting would primarily listen to the viewpoints of chief ministers and try to identify points of convergence to develop a consensus on the construction of a big reservoir, the source said.

The meeting is also expected to discuss non-implementation of the para-2 of the 1991 Water Accord in the distribution of water shortages by Irsa despite a clear-cut ruling given by the law ministry on the interpretation of the accord.

The sources said the PCWR, headed by senator Nisar A. Memon, is likely to submit its interim report to the president by mid-August. The sources said that the committee was also planning to give a presentation to the president, prime minister, Senate chairman and Speaker of National Assembly at a joint meeting before the end of this month and brief them on the views of stake-holders on the construction of new dams, alternatives, major irritants and concerns.

The sources said that the committee was expected to recommend to the government to appoint a panel of international experts in consultation with the provincial governments to take a decision on the construction of a big water reservoir.

The sources said that the panel of experts would be presented with various studies so far completed by various government agencies as well as reports expected to be finalized by the two committees - parliamentary and technical - on water resources within a couple of months.

The report of technical committee, led by A.N.G. Abbasi, is expected to cover the total water availability situation that would determine whether sufficient surplus water was available to go for a big dam.

The panel would be responsible to go through all the relevant material and pros and cons of various dams and then submit an expert, unbiased opinion acceptable to all.

The sources said the relevant quarters were now convinced that Pakistan required at least two big dams in the next 10 years. As such, construction of Kalabagh dam would become first priority, to be followed by Bhasha dam after two years because it still needed technical input to reach construction stage.

They said that Katzara Skardu dam that has an expected storage capacity of over 31 million acre feet but required more than 10 years to reach construction stage was also being given importance as part of an integrated approach to feed Tarbela and Bhasha dams both for irrigation and power generation purposes.

But this involves replacement of over 300-km of Karakoram Highway, a range of underground, semi-underground and surface defence allocations, an enterprise having far-reaching security implications.

The government is being advised to remove minor irritants having big implications. One such irritant in the NWFP could be removed by construction of Munda dam and a barrage to reduce the chances of water-logging and floods. Similarly, such irritants are also being identified in Sindh.