HYDERABAD, July 17: The Anti-LBOD Movement warned on Tuesday that it would file a murder case against the international financial institutions and the government and seek justice from the International Court of Justice if the Left Bank Outfall Drain project caused any more loss of life in Thatta and Badin.

Members of coordination committee of the movement, Mohammad Ali Shah, Khadim Talpur, Dr Najma Junejo, Allah Bachayo Jamali and Abdul Salam Memon said at a news conference at the press club that if the government did not roll back the project, 50,000 affected people of the two districts would gather at the Quaid-i-Azam mausoleum and march up to the Governor’s House.

If the project was not demolished during the current year, people would themselves pull down the concrete wall raised at the Dhoro Puran Outfall Drain (DPOD), they warned.

They said that the Rs41.58 billion LBOD project funded by the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank for draining out floodwater into the sea to protect agricultural lands of Nawabshah, Sanghar and Mirpurkhas districts from water-logging and salinity had proved an utter failure due to its faulty design.

They said that 1998 cyclone pulled down the Cholari weir wall causing the seawater to intrude into a large number of settlements and lands along the coast. The sea had so far swallowed up 400,000 acres of rich agricultural land of Badin district, they said.

Non-release of water downstream Kotri and the LBOD had rendered a total of 2.2 million acres of land in the two districts barren and the resultant hunger, unemployment and constant threat of cyclone had forced thousands families living in the coastal areas since centuries to migrate to safer areas, they said.

The committee members said that coastal people had been raising voice against the project for more than a decade but neither the government nor the international financial institutions had taken their cries for justice seriously.

The situation led to the launch of “Anti-LBOD Movement” on July 8, 2007 at a huge gathering of civil society member, growers, businessmen, peasants, workers and fishermen at the Badin press club, they said.

They demanded that the floodwater coming from upper Sindh should be diverted into DPOD, which fell into Shakoor Lake through the spinal drain and called for demolition of wall at RD-159 and increase in the capacity of DPOD.

They said that a 10-foot high dyke should be constructed at the Shah Samundo creek to save villages from the seawater, which was intruding into villages after the destruction of tidal link.

They demanded that the international banks should compensate the people who suffered huge losses in floods.

They urged the government, the WB and ADB to prepare a comprehensive plan to rehabilitate all the lakes and coastal areas and rejected the World Bank's plan for the development of coastal areas.

They said that the movement would launch a signature campaign and send signatures to the international financial institutions and the government, stage a long march, hold a people’s assembly and finally file a petition against the LBOD in high court.