SUKKUR, Feb 8: Agriculturists, parliamentarians and leaders of the Sindh Abadgar Board have underlined the need for implementing the 1991 water accord in letter and spirit.

Speaking at a seminar here on Saturday, they said violation of the accord would trigger unrest among the provinces. In his presidential speech, former Sindh irrigation minister and SAB patron-in-chief Syed Ali Meer Shah held the Sindh bureaucracy responsible for problems confronting the province and called for solution to the same.

He regretted that corruption had increased in agriculture and other Sindh departments, saying even the Zakat distribution system was not transparent and there were many complaints about misuse of the Zakat funds.

Mr Shah proposed that the water distribution system of Sindh should be handed over to Wapda as the irrigation department had failed to fulfil its responsibilities.

He demanded that the federal government should decrease prices of agricultural inputs which would help farmers get a good produce. Mr Shah emphasized that the water issue should be resolved as the country largely depended on agriculture.

SAB president Abdul Majeed Nizamani called for taking measures on priority basis to save water from being wasted. He said strengthening and desilting of canals, minors and watercourses could improve the water situation.

He also said the Sindh delta and its marine life should be preserved and measures be taken to protect environment downstream Kotri, where he said 10 million acre feet water discharge was needed to meet ecological requirements.

Mr Nizamani said the point had been raised at last meeting of Sindh agriculture representatives with President Gen Pervez Musharraf in Hyderabad. The president had assured the representatives of concrete measures in this regard, he added.

He opposed construction of dams without consensus among the provinces. Later, he also released resolutions passed at the seminar which called for steps to meet challenges of the World Trade Organization regime.

The seminar also demanded an inquiry into the wrong designing of Left Bank Outfall Drain which it said had resulted in a havoc in lower Sindh in 1999. PPP leader Aftab Shaaban Mirani said a joint struggle should be initiated to protect rights of farmers of Sindh.

He said Sindh's future depended on agriculture and any negligence in this regard could cause irreparable loss to its economy.He assured the farmers of his party's support in the struggle for their rights.