ISLAMABAD, Aug 30: Pakistan People’s Party Chairperson Benazir Bhutto criticizing the government for failing to help the rain-hit people has asked it to make funding available for strengthening of the Left Bank Outfall Drain (LBOD).

In a statement issued by PPP media office here on Saturday, Ms Bhutto said it was painful to see how the people of the coastal areas were treated by the present government, which was interested only in “exploiting and oppressing” them by denying their basic rights.

She regretted that only cosmetic work was carried out and ordinary people suffered enormously due to the neglect by the regime.

The former premier said she had received a report that demonstrated negligence by the regime which led to the catastrophe in the coastal areas of Badin and Thatta where in addition to the rain, the situation was worsened by the upstream flow of seawater which left the area barren.

According to the report, she said, the situation in Badin district worsened due to mismanagement of the LBOD, constructed in the mid-1980s.

The LBOD was built to dispose saline effluent from waterlogged districts to the Arabian Sea. However, it was built poorly with corruption eating away the amount of cement and strengthening that was needed to make it withstand cyclones and rains, she said.

Nearly half a million people were displaced and ruined by the rains in Badin district, which affected 200 villages.

Ms Bhutto said the refusal to invest in making the LBOD a formidable fortress capable of shunting out the sea water had brought havoc to once fertile lands displacing farmers and adversely affecting the agricultural output in addition to the death and devastation brought by the flooding of villages.

Poor work by Wapda, for which no one has yet been held accountable, meant that the Tidal Link Canal, the final component of the LBOD taking water into the sea, suffered repeated breaches, she added.

The PPP chairperson said after the dismissal of the PPP government, which had ordered an inquiry to identify areas need for repair, the project was neglected.