HYDERABAD, April 1: The Sindh Abadgar Board has demanded of the government to postpone recovery of agricultural loans in the water-starved province and compensate its growers for the losses they had suffered due to water shortage during the last three years.

In a statement issued here on Tuesday, SAB president Abdul Majeed Nizamani said that according to officials figures, the losses came to Rs50 billion.

Calling on the federal and provincial governments to implement the water accord of 1991. He also demanded that the autonomy of Irsa should be restored.

He proposed that the entire irrigation system should be re-modelled, computerized system should be introduced to regulate the flow of water, 70 per cent watercourses in Sindh should be lined in three years and hydropower projects should be set up in the province.

Mr Nizamani demanded that the forcibly collected revenue during the drought period should be refunded to growers of Sindh.

He also demanded that contaminated water and effluent of Punjab, which was being disposed of in the River Indus, should be disposed of in some other way to save agricultural land of Sindh.

He said that the 1991 water accord was in continuation of the recommendations made by different committees and commissions in 1935, 1945, 1971 and 1983 and added that the accord was based on a consensus and it enjoyed the constitutional protection.

He said that in the first meeting of the Indus River System Authority held on Feb 10, 1993, it was stressed that one million acre foot water should be released downstream Kotri.

The growers’ leader alleged that the cabinet decision of 1994 about the water distribution among the provinces had illegally been imposed which had resulted in the acute shortage of water in Sindh.

Consequently, Mr Nizamani said, in Sindh production of rice had decreased from 2,122,996 tonnes to 1,139,114 tonnes, that of sugarcane from 420 million maunds to 290 million maunds and that of wheat from three million tonnes to two million tonnes.

Contrary to that, he added, in Punjab during 2000-2002, rice production had increased by 21.4 per cent, wheat production by 40 per cent and production of other crops by 20 per cent.

He said that the situation became so critical President Gen Pervez Musharraf personally intervened in the matter and directed that the 1991 water accord should be implemented in letter and in spirit.

The SAB chief said that all the political and religious parties, social welfare organizations and growers’ associations as well as the Sindh Assembly members raised hue and cry on the issue but to no avail.