ISLAMABAD, Jan 2: The technical committee on water resources is unlikely to reach consensus on the question of water availability for future dams and its final report would contain some dissenting notes, it is learnt.
Informed sources told Dawn on Sunday that the committee was facing a deadlock over the final estimates of average annual water availability. A member from Sindh, Sardar Ahmad Mughal, is opposed to the opinion of seven other provincial members.
It has, therefore, been decided at the committee level that every member will give his opinion in writing on the subject and will be made part of the final report to be prepared by committee Chairman A.N.G. Abbasi.
The committee has convened its next three-day meeting on Jan 11-13 to deliberate upon three new topics - construction of future dams, silting and desilting of dams and water distribution according to 1991 water accord.
The sources said seven members, including Dr Iqbal from Sindh, concurred that annual average water availability figures projected by the Wapda at 154 million acre feet (maf) were correct.
On this basis, these seven members agree that around 19 to 20maf of water is surplus which is enough for future dam and, hence, at least one big dam should be constructed without any delay.
The sources said Mr Mughal, on the other hand, was of the view that total annual average water availability based on data from year 1922 onwards was only 138maf after accounting for possible future usages by India and Afghanistan and possible water requirement downstream Kotri.
As such, he believes that overall annual water availability will remain short of making a new dam feasible at all and, therefore, the option should be dropped. Sindh is the only province whose two members have taken different positions on the subject.
On the question of Kalabagh dam, these sources said, seven members supported its construction. However, Dr Iqbal had supported the Kalabagh dam construction on the condition that there would be no canals for the NWFP or Punjab.
Both the members from the Punjab and Sardar Tariq from the NWFP are of the opinion that Kalabagh dam should have canals for both the NWFP and Punjab. A source close to Mr A.N.G. Abbasi, however, said that an effort would be made to submit a consensus report on all subjects of the terms of reference of the committee, including the water availability.
The sources said that Mr Abbasi had already held separate meetings with President Gen Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz recently and briefed them about the progress made so far and the difference of opinion of the committee members. The committee is expected to submit its final report to the government next month.