HARIPUR, Jan 9: Chairman South Asia Technical Advisory Committee on World Commission on Dams (WCD and director Pakistan Water Partnership (PWP) Sardar Tariq Khan said that owing to the fast depletion of water resources and low per capita water storage, the construction of new reservoirs was imperative for sustainable agriculture development in Pakistan.

But the social impacts of these projects must not be overlooked besides employing Risks & Rights approach towards the old victims and new ones, he said while talking to newsmen here on Thursday.

He said that India managed to build over 4000 large dams since its inception and Japan had over 45000 while China possessed over 5000 but unluckily Pakistan was much behind of them with a very small numbers.

He said that Americans preserved a big quantity of water for their citizens at the rate of 6150 cubic meters per capita while in Pakistan it was hardly 32 cubic meters, which calls for serious consideration about the rapidly depleting water resources he added.

Mr Tariq said that water-harvesting techniques should also be applied for growing needs on the pattern of India and Germany who had successfully overcome their water deficiencies by preserving hundred and thousands of village ponds.

He was of the view that catchment management policy could also decrease sedimentation of Tarbela reservoir, which was being filled, with 500,000 MTs of sedimentation daily.

To a question, Sardar Tariq conceded that the National Resettlement Policy should be implemented to guarantee the rights and benefits to those people who had been directly affected by the construction of reservoirs. "It would be impossible for the government to go ahead with its new projects without compensating and addressing the problems of the victims of Tarbela, Mangla and Chutiari projects", he maintained, adding that these people had sacrificed their sources of livelihood and cultural heritage.

About the report of World Commission on Dams, Mr Tariq said that the Commission has started compiling a revised report on the Mitigating Social Impacts of large dams, in the local context through consultative process countrywide and the report when finalized would be made public.