KARACHI: Sindh Irrigation Minister Jam Khan Shoro on Wednesday said that shortage of water was the biggest issue in the province which was being deprived of its due share under the Water Accord 1991.

Sindh Minister for Information Saeed Ghani said at a joint press conference that 2.2 to 3.2 million acres turned barren in the province as the required water was not being released to the sea. “There is acute shortage of water in Rice Canal, Dadu Canal and Balochistan due to water crisis in the province,” he added.

The minister said that ill-planned Right Bank Outfall Drain (RBOD) and Left Bank Outfall Drain (LBOD) had caused huge losses to the province.

He said the irrigation department had decided to carry out lining of canals to reduce seepage loss of irrigation water.

“Since 2008, the provincial government completed lining of 3,200 kilometres of irrigation canals,” he added.

Shoro said that as many as 15 projects of Annual Development Programme (ADP) would be completed in the current fiscal year, while work on the lining of 509 km of canals was in progress.

He said that Rs40 billion were earmarked for 138 different schemes of water and drainage which included 84 new schemes. “Besides, Rs546bn have been allocated for four water schemes for the Thar coal region,” he added.

The minister said that everyone had right to criticise the government, but it was wrong to call a “good local bodies law” negative and engage in ethnic politics on the issue.

He said the local government law of 2003 was enacted after making improvements in the Sindh Local Government Act, 2001.

“Mayor did not have powers in the solid waste management in the SLGA 2001 and SLGA 2013. But now the mayor will be the chairman of the solid waste management board,” he added.

Published in Dawn, December 16th, 2021