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| September 22, 2005 | Thursday | Sha'aban 17, 1426 |
World Bank report on dams rejected
HYDERABAD, Sept 21: Leaders of the nationalist parties have rejected the report of the World Bank on building dig dams in Pakistan. In a statement issued here on Tuesday, the chief of the Awami Tehrik and the president of the Sindh Water Committee, Rasool Bux Palijo, said that the bank was against the Third World countries and had always supported the Pakistani rulers to carry out anti-Sindh projects.
He said the people of Pakistan would never accept the recommendations of the World Bank.
Mr Palijo said that Sindh had taken a clear decision of not supporting any dam on the Indus River.
He said the figures quoted in the report were absolutely false and argued that although no water was available for any dam, the World Bank has recommended the storage of 18 MAF of water through construction of new dams.
Mr Palijo said that the previous project of left bank outfall drain of the World Bank had proved to be a disaster for Sindh.
He said that the bank’s office in Pakistan should not play in the hands of Musharraf government.
In another statement, the Sindh Taraqi Pasand Party chairman, Dr Qadir Magsi, has also criticized the World Bank report and said that the bank had failed to consider the interests of small provinces.
He reminded the World Bank that Sindh, Balochistan and NWFP had unanimously rejected the Kalabagh dam and their elected assemblies had adopted resolutions for it.
He said that Punjab had sold its three rivers and now wanted to take control of the Indus.
SIDA: The Sindh Irrigation and Drainage Authority has prepared a blueprint for setting up stakeholders’ fora to supervise the Sindh On-Farm Water Management Project which was started with the financial assistance of the World Bank.
The responsibilities of fora were unfolded by the general manager transition of SIDA, Professor Aijaz Qureshi, in a meeting held here on Wednesday.
It was decided that fora will be set up in three areas of the water boards by October 25 to supervise working of the project.
It was decided that the fora would consist of the Sindh Abadgar Board, Sindh Chamber of Agriculture, district nazims, farmers’ organisations, watercourses associations and the civil society representatives.
Speaking on the occasion, Professor Aijaz Qureshi said that the stakeholders would supervise the working of any mega project for the first time in Pakistan and their inclusion would identify the weaknesses and drawbacks of the project immediately.
Those who also attended the meeting were Nazeer Ahmed Essani, the social development specialist of the authority, Mohammad Ali Mahar, the deputy general manager operations, Abdul Sattar Sario of the Ghotki feeder canal, G.N. Mughal, the communication specialist of the authority, and Ghulam Mustafa Ujjan.
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