BADIN, April 30: With water shortage persisting all over Sindh, the tail-end district of Badin is suffering the most and its agriculture sector is on the brink of collapse.

If the existing accord on water is not implemented in letter and spirit, people of Badin will begin starving as they are dependent on agriculture.

This was stated by People's Party Parliamentarians MNA Dr Fehmida Mirza at a press conference here on Thursday after attending a briefing by the Sindh Irrigation and Drainage Authority officials on water.

She said that Sida had provided figures to the legislators of Badin district about disrupted supply of water to the province of Sindh. She said that Sindh was receiving lesser water than its share which was evident from the fact that a record shortage of 72 per cent had been witnessed at the Kotri Barrage and that of 39 per cent at the Sukkur and Guddu barrages.

MPAs Dr Sikandar Ali Mandhro, Mir Babu, Ali Nawaz Chandio and Syed Amjad Ali Shah, who too had attended the Sida briefing, also spoke at the press conference. They said the meeting of the Sida officials with the legislators focused on a three-point agenda, water problem, recovery of abiyana (water tax) and improvement of drainage system.

They alleged that the Sida officials could not provide correct answers to their questions and demanded that water tax should not be recovered from the people of Badin district. They said that the Sida briefing had confirmed that Sindh would have to wait for months for an improvement in water availability in the province.

They deplored that Sida had failed to improve the irrigation system due to lack of funds and powers and added that only 13 farmers organizations had been formed in the district where 104 had to be formed. The legislators said that flawed distribution of water was making the farmers of the tail-end areas to suffer the most.

If no arrangement were made for disposal of the Left Bank Outfall Drain network water, the expenses occurred on the clearance of silt in the drains would go waste and the drains would flow in opposite direction during rains, they warned.