HYDERABAD, May 26: The adviser to the Sindh chief minister on Sida affairs, Ali Akbar Nizamani, has directed officials of the three area water boards to distribute water judiciously so that tail-end growers can also get water.

He was talking to officials of the Sindh Irrigation and Drainage Authority and the area water boards, including Sida managing-director Ali Mohammad Baloch, general managers of Sida and directors of the three AWBs, at a meeting at the Sida office here on Tuesday.

Admitting that shortage of water still persisted, he said that efforts should be made to allay complaints about the water shortage, particularly at tail-ends of channels.

He instructed directors of the AWBs to repair modules which had been tampered with and complete desilting of channels in time. He also directed them for repairing gates of regulators.

Mr Nizamani asked the officials to speed up recovery of Abyana so as to make the organization self-sufficient financially. He was informed by the AWBs' directors that Rs82 million had been collected as Abyana by the three AWBs.

The director, Nara Canal Area Water Board, said that his board had collected about Rs65 million. The director, Ghotki Feeder Canal Area Water Board, said that the board had collected Rs15 million and the director, Left Bank Canals Area Water Board, said that his board had collected Rs2 million as Abyana.

He said that most parts of the Badin district had been declared calamity-hit areas and a confusion still existed as to whether Abyana and other charges were to be collected from these areas or not.

The issue of the Left Bank Outfall Drain was also discussed at the meeting. The adviser was briefed by the officials that despite repeated requests, funds had not been provided by the Sindh government to repair damages caused to the LBOD during the previous monsoon.

Mr Nizamani asked the Sida managing director to again contact the authorities in this regard. He said that he that he would also take up the matter with the government.