LAHORE, Jan 20: Punjab on Tuesday agreed to treat any new dam as a carry-over reservoir, clearing the way for a national consensus on future water storages.

In its presentation to the political committee of parliament on water resources, the Punjab government dropped its earlier stance for a regulation dam in favour of a reservoir that would only be filled during the wet/flood season and water from there would be released during the time of stress, specially late Rabi and early Kharif seasons.

The province also agreed that the dam would only be filled when additional water was available after meeting irrigation requirements of the country.

It, however, insisted that Kalabagh dam must be built first as it was the only dam that could meet the looming water crisis. Sindh has long been insisting on building a carry-over dam instead of a regular reservoir. Tuesday's change of stance by Punjab should apparently help evolve a consensus on a new dam.

Briefing the press about the meeting, Senator Nisar Memon, chairman of the parliamentary committee, said the issue of a new dam had assumed political dimension and had to be treated as such.

He appreciated the presentation from Punjab as a good step forward because it treated a highly sensitive issue in a calculated manner and did not let emotions run high. "This is a good omen for a national consensus on a new water reservoir," he said.

Talking about his own attempt to build a consensus, Mr Memon said that every stakeholder had to be taken on board in a manner that satisfied every one. "It has to be a win-win for everyone, otherwise it will create more problems than it can solve," he feared.

He said the Punjab government had been asked to explain its water planning, irrigation projects, position on new dams, stance on the 91' Water Accord, desilting and tubewells. The province did a thorough homework and gave detailed briefing on each of these issues, he added. According to Mr Memon, the committee would gather opinion of all the stakeholders and form its own opinion.