KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah on Monday urged the Water and Power Development Authority to pay proper attention to the projects it had launched in Sindh.

This he said in a meeting with Wapda chairman retired Lt-Gen Muzammil Hussain during a meeting held at the CM House.

The CM asked the Wapda chief to initiate phase II of the Reni canal project, which was supposed to be 210-kilometres long up to Mithi, where another reservoir was to be constructed with a storage capacity of 93,000 acre feet water for the people of Thar.

The Wapda chief said a proposal to name the Reni canal phase II as the Thar canal was under consideration as it would supply water to Thar.

Phase I of the same project emanates from the Guddu Barrage and passes near Ubauro, Daharki, Mirpur Mathelo, Khangarh, Salehpat, and Rohri. It terminates at Nara desert with a reservoir having a storage capacity of 61,000 acre feet.

He said he had visited the Hub Dam a number of times and found that it usually overflowed during the peak season. At present, he added, its walls were 50 feet high which were not enough to store water.

“Every year around 20 million acre feet water overflows and goes into the sea,” he said, adding that he had worked out a plan to raise its walls by three metres to save water from wasting. He said a PC-I was being prepared.

The chief minister urged him to take up RBOD-I [Right Bank Outfall Drain-I] which had some serious issues and launch the RBOD-III so that issues regarding disposal of saline water into the sea could be sorted out. The Wapda chief said he was working on that project.

Lt-Gen Hussain told Mr Shah that the Darawat dam in the lap of the Kirthar Range had been completed, but its distribution system was to be constructed. “Wapda is actively working on the project which would be done in consultation with the Sindh irrigation department.”

Officials said the dam was a concrete gravity dam across the Nai Baran River near Jhangri village, Jamshoro. It is 820 feet long and 141 feet high and would store about 120,000 acre feet of water to help irrigate 25,000 acres of land in the region.

Principal Secretary to the CM Naveed Kamran Baloch also attended the meeting.

Slain PPP lawmaker remembered

Speaking at a gathering on the 13th death anniversary of PPP leader Abdullah Murad, the CM said he epitomised struggle, upheld the rights of the people of Malir and was a man of integrity.

The event to pay tribute to late Murad was organised by the party at Old Thano village of Malir.

Mr Shah said Abdullah Murad and he had started parliamentary politics in 2002. The PPP was on the opposition benches, yet, it worked immensely for the people under the leadership of his predecessor, Qaim Ali Shah, and Nisar Khuhro. “Abdullah Murad was an untiring son of Malir and had pain of poor people in his heart. He fought against mafias such as those involved in the theft of sand and gravel; builders and others, to protect the rights of his people.”

He said he wanted to improve agro-economy of Malir by protecting its lands and was against the lifting of sand and gravel from the bed of the Malir River.

“The spirit of his struggle made various people, including the so-called champions of Karachi insecure, and they tried to remove him from the scene,” he said, adding: “The brave son of Sindh was killed on this day in 2004, but he lives in his son, Salman, who is the chairman of Karachi District Council.”

The gathering was also addressed by former CM Qaim Ali Shah and Sindh PPP president Nisar Khuhro.c

Published in Dawn, March 7th, 2017