FAISALABAD, Sept 18: A high-level committee, comprising members of the provincial assembly, tehsil and union council Nazims, Wasa managing-director, and representatives of farmers, has been constituted under the chairmanship of the DCO to resolve the issue of sinking of tubewells along the Jhang Branch canal.

The committee has been constituted at a meeting of the government functionaries, here on Thursday. District Nazim Zahid Nazir chaired the meeting.

Wasa MD said on the occasion the district’s current water production capacity was 65 million gallons a day against 125 million gallons required for the 75 per cent of the population daily. Keeping in view the rate of population growth, he said, demand for water would be increased to over 165 and 200 million gallons a day up to 2005 and 2010, respectively.

He also said the underground water of the Faisalabad district had become brackish, and added that the site along the Jhang Branch canal was suitable for pumping out this water.

Local MPAs Jahanzeb Imtiaz Gill and Faiz Kamoka, MNA Mushtaq Ali Cheema, a former MNA, Saddar Tehsil Nazim Muhammad Afzal, and the growers’ representatives apprised the participants of the benefits of the project and people’s reservations and fears associated with it.

The area Nazims and MPA criticized Wasa for initiating the project without taking them into confidence.

However, the government officials decided to redress grievances of the growers, and constituted a committee to be chaired by DCO Tahir Husain.

The committee was asked to negotiate with all the stakeholders and formulate workable proposal to reach an agreement.

Meanwhile, a spokesman of the Housing and Public Health Engineering department has denied reports published in a daily that JICA, which has funded this project, had suspended the work in the face of protests and resistance offered by people.