A Senate panel on Wednesday recommended convening an extraordinary meeting of the Council of Common Interest (CCI) to evolve consensus among provinces on the construction of new water reservoirs, including controversial Kalabagh dam. The Senate standing committee on planning and development suggested provincial chief ministers and top leaders of coalition government should also be asked to attend the CCI special meeting. The recommendation came after technical experts of the Planning Commission informed the Committee that Pakistan could best exploit rising global temperatures in next 25 years by building new dams. "Had we not built more reservoirs, we would have been wasting much of water we have," one of Planning Commission's experts alarmed members as a power crisis headed for worse from bad. He said more rains were expected and glaciers were poised to melt fast under changing patterns of weather that would enhance the availability of water by increasing flows in rivers. "This is what can benefit our efforts to overcome energy crisis. But only if we overcome differences over building dams," the expert added. In a presentation to the Committee, the Planning Commission said the country had the potential to generate more than 50,000 MW electricity by using water alone. But political differences were hindering Pakistan to achieve this goal and caution the government to take out of the box measures for improving the situation, he added. Copyright Business Recorder, 2008