September 16, 2003	Tuesday	Rajab 18, 1424

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FAISALABAD, Sept 15: Residents of areas along the Jhang Branch canal continued their protest on Monday against Wasa’s decision to install tubewells in the area to provide potable water to the urban population.

To vent their anger, they gathered on the Faisalabad-Sargodha Road in a large number and staged a usual sit-in outside the offices of the district coordination officer and Wasa chief even after the agency’s assurance that the plan would not lower the underground water level.

Headed by MPA Jehanzeb Imtiaz Gull, the villagers, including women and elderly men, blocked traffic on the road and chanted slogans against the government higher-ups. Banners and placards in their hands were inscribed with slogans against Wasa officials for not taking them into confidence over the issue of tubewells’ installation along the Jhang Branch canal.

They stuck to their point that the underground water level of the area would go to the lowest ebb due to installation of tubewells.

Senior police officials and administrative functionaries held talks with the protesting villagers, who later dispersed peacefully on the assurance that their arguments would be given weight.

Wasa had planned a mega water-supply project and decided to install tubewells on the bank of the Chenab, but failed to materialize it due to resistance by the people of Chiniot. Thereafter, it selected the site along the Jhang Branch canal, but a fresh protest wave by the locals has made its implementation doubtful.

Wasa sources claim that a team of Japanese and local engineers declared the site suitable for the installation of tubewells. They also quoted the surveyors as saying that there would be no decline in the level of the underground water after the tubewells’ installation.

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