12 January 2005	Wednesday	01 Zilhaj 1425

ISLAMABAD, Jan 11: The Technical Committee on Water Resources (TCWR) constituted by President Gen Pervez Musharraf has started final round of presentations on construction of new dams and would crystallize its recommendations soon after Eidul Azha.

TCWR Chairman ANG Abbasi told Dawn on Tuesday that the committee was given presentations by Wapda on desilting the existing dams and sequence of construction of future water reservoirs during the first session of the three-day meeting.

He said the secretary planning had provided documented information and data on the subject and hence it was considered not to have a presentation from the planning commission.

Besides eight members of the committee, parliamentary committee on water resources' chairman Senator Nisar A. Memon and Wapda chairman also attended the meeting. Mr Abbasi said that a final presentation would be given by Indus River System Authority (Irsa) on Thursday about the water accord and distribution of water.

He said the committee would also deliberate upon the data provided by the planning commission and presentation given by Wapda on Wednesday and seek further clarifications if required.

He said the committee had planned to hold a final round of meetings after Eid holidays to examine all the material provided by various stakeholders and start compiling and crystallizing the final recommendations.

Mr Abbasi said that the TCWR had gathered all the information pertaining to terms of reference of the committee and it would take some time to produce a quality report.

He said the committee had the official deadline of end-February for sun bitting the final report but it would make no difference if it is submitted before or after the deadline.