ISLAMABAD, Jan 26: The four provinces have concurred over a draft report prepared last week by the Ministry of Water and Power on major water projects that seek to remove provincial reservations over Kalabagh and Akhori dams.
Secretary for water and power Ashfaq Mahmood, head of a sub-committee on dams, is likely to present the report to a meeting of the Central Development Working Party on Saturday, though it is not among the agenda items, a senior official told Dawn.
An official of the Sindh government said provincial authorities “had received the draft report which has been returned after signatures”. He said Sindh was on board the federal cabinet decision of Jan 17, 2006, and subsequent speech to the nation by President Gen Pervez Musharraf the same day.
He said Sindh’s views on construction of dam had been recorded correctly in the report, saying provincial reservations should be removed through a properly planned campaign before starting work on Kalabagh and Akhori dams.
Sindh had also reiterated that enough surplus water was not available to meet requirements of Kalabagh and Akhori dams and hence time and resources should not be wasted on them, he said.Another official in the federal government said the NWFP remained rigid in its stance against construction of Kalabagh and Akhori dams.
The sub-committee led by Ashfaq Mahmood and represented by provincial authorities was constituted by the CDWP in October last to present an action plan on implementation of five major dams by 2016.
Mr Mahmood had told Dawn on Jan 20 that the committee had resolved with consensus to implement the cabinet decision in letter and in spirit.
After the Jan 17 meeting of the federal cabinet, President Gen Musharraf had announced to defer construction of the controversial Kalabagh dam till evolving a consensus on the project.
The president had, however, announced two other new water reservoirs – Bhasha and Munda dams. Work on even these two projects is yet to start, though there has been some paper work.
The president had also said that new water reservoirs, including Kalabagh, would surely be built by 2016. Other dams are Bhasha, Akohri, Munda and Kuramtangi.
