PESHAWAR, May 27: Farmers have asked the government to construct the Left Bank Chashma Canal to divert water for irrigating barren lands in the southern districts of the province.

Speaking to newsmen at the Peshawar Press Club here on Thursday, Abdul Latif Miankhel, leader of the small farmers of Dera Ismail Khan, said that 2.24 million acres in southern districts had been lying barren because of shortage of water.

He said President Pervez Musharraf had promised the construction of the left bank canal on the occasion of inauguration of Chashma Right Bank Canal in 2002. He said last year too the president reiterated his pledge while speaking at a gathering of Nazims in Dera Ismail Khan. The president had also hinted at the inauguration of the project on August 14.

Latif Miankhel said that small farmers in D.I. Khan, Tank, Bannu and Lakki Marwat had been facing serious problems due to non-availability of water. Many of them had been forced to migrate to Karachi or Lahore to earn livelihoods for their families, he added.

"With the construction of the Chashma Left Bank Canal, people of the area would be able to cultivate different crops," he said. At present, the land could not be cultivated because of non-availability of water and farmers were unable to derive any benefit from it.

Mr Latif said the government had already spent Rs62.5 million on the survey of the project which was completed on Dec 31, 2003. The local politicians, who reach the corridors of power through the votes of the area people, never took interest in getting the scheme initiated, he claimed.

He also claimed that the provincial government had sent a feasibility report of the project to the federal government, which would cost Rs2 billion. The barren area, he said, could become a source of agricultural boom for the area and the country if the scheme was materialized.

This would not only end the wheat crisis for ever, the country would also be able to export the commodity and earn the much-needed foreign exchange. The people, he said, had to fetch water from far-flung areas in the region for drinking purpose and in most of the cases it was found to be unfit for human consumption.

Mr Latif also asked MMA leader Maulana Fazlur Rehman to use his influence for the launching of the project to benefit millions of the people living in southern districts.