HYDERABAD, Aug 1: The Hyderabad Development Authority has appealed to the higher irrigation authorities to immediately release water into Akram Wah as 400,000 residents of the city are dependent on the canal for water supply.

In a statement issued here on Friday, HDA director-general Ali Ahmed Lund said that there was an acute water shortage in the city as no water was available in the channel.

The HDA MD said that he had approached the chief engineer, Kotri Barrage, managing director, Sindh Irrigation and Drainage Authority and other relevant authorities for immediate release of water into the channel but in vain.

The district Nazim, the City taluka Nazim, Water and Sanitation Agency authorities and MPA Abdul Rehman Rajput have also been persuading the SIDA and the irrigation authorities to release water into Akram Wah by three to four feet so that people could be supplied water at least for drinking purpose but the SIDA and the irrigation authorities have remained unmoved on the ground that they had been strictly directed not to release water into Akram Wah, Pinyari and Phulelli channels.

Mr Rajput, who talked to irrigation secretary Imtiaz Kazi on Friday, told this correspondent that the secretary promised to get back to him after ensuring that the water supply was resumed by the Sida but so far, there had been no response from him.

District Nazim Dr Makhdoom Rafiquzzaman brought the matter to the notice of Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Jamali during his briefing at the Hyderabad airport on Thursday.

The district Nazim said on Thursday night that the prime minister had directed the Sindh chief minister to resolve the problem but deplored that so far, there was no development in the situation which remained unchanged. He said that if water was not released into the canal, the situation might take an ugly turn with people taking to streets.