LAHORE, Jan 2: Punjab Governor Lt-Gen Khalid Maqbool (retired) will formally inaugurate the 20-day province-wide canal desilting campaign from Sargodha on Thursday (today).

The irrigation department has already closed all the canals on Dec 26.

Official sources said on Wednesday 537 channels would be cleaned while 2,538 miles of irrigation channels and distributaries would be desilted.

The campaign being undertaken at a cost of Rs200 million would involve 21,000 farmers, 6,000 trucks and 20 bulldozers.

They said the desilting campaign began in 1992 and was being organized on regular basis to ensure water reached the tail-ends of the waterways to facilitate farmers irrigate their lands.

The country had been facing water shortage for the past three years but the sources say through judicious management of water resources, it has been able to lessen its impact.

This time, the sources said, the Punjab faced up to 52 per cent water shortage but expressed the hope that the problem would be resolved to a great extent.

Army would not be involved in the exercise this year but monitor the drive. Desilting committees have being constituted under the supervision of district and tehsil Nazims.—APP