June 28, 2008	Saturday	Jamadi-us-Sani 23, 1429

HYDERABAD, June 27: The Sindh government should seek implementation of 1991 Water Accord in letter and spirit as anything less than that would be atrocity to the people of Sindh, lower riparian of River Indus, mentioned the Sindh Abadgar Board (SAB) to Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah through a communication.

The 14 main canals of Guddu, Sukkur, and Kotri barrages irrigate around 12.5 million acres, while the remaining 22.5 million acres depends on unreliable rainfall, pointed out SAB President Abdul Majeed Nizamani. Acute water shortage does not allow irrigation of the entire fertile land, he said.

People, farmers and successive provincial government for last 50 years had been demanding their due share of drinking and irrigation water but to no avail, he regretted.

He said the inter-provincial water accord 1991 had allocated water for main canals of the barrages but precluded future development in agriculture sector.

It was highly unfortunate that even this meager allocation was being violated and illegally and unlawfully mutilated by the so-called 1994 agreement.

He reminded the Sindh chief minister that the 1994 agreement had not only been nullified by the federal law department but also by the head of the state.

He said Kotri barrage designed for 44,000 cusecs had been allocated 35,000 cusecs.

It was unfortunate that Kotri had been allocated less water, which too was not being supplied, said SAB President.

It had become a matter of life and death for the farming community and people of lower Sindh as whole area was being converted into a desert, Nizamani said and urged the government to pay attention towards the agricultural development of the province.