SUKKUR, July 14: State minister for water and power Khalid Ahmed Lund has called upon the Sindh government and particularly, the irrigation department, to strengthen protective embankments of the River Indus and canals as a flood of medium capacity seems to be approaching in the province.

He was talking to a delegation of farmers in the Himmat Kamario village near Garhi Yaseen, Shikarpur district, on Monday.

The minister said that steps should to taken to ensure that the flood situation became beneficial for the people of the Kutcha area by boosting up the crops and must not cause damages.

The delegation complained to the minister about lengthy power breakdowns in Shikarpur, Jacobabad, Madeji, Kandhkot, Thul and other towns of upper Sindh and said that unannounced loadshedding was taking place for hours on daily basis.

The minister said that he would issue directives to the Hesco chief to resolve the problems of power failure in Sindh.

He announced that a Hesco customer service center would be established in Madeji and the company officials, who were found involved in harassing the consumers, would be dealt with iron hand.

Earlier, talking to journalists at his residence, the minister said that the government had taken efforts to tackle the flood situation and the irrigation department was closely watching the water position in the river as well as the canals.

He said that due to the recent rainfall, shortage of water had been minimized throughout the country and hoped that the problem would be solved forever in next five to ten years.

He said that the project of the Kalabagh dam would be undertaken after an inter-provincial consensus on it was evolved.