HYDERABAD, June 13: Elected representatives, leaders of social welfare organizations and experts have urged Punjab and Balochistan provinces to make their own arrangements for the disposal of agricultural waste.

They were speaking at a seminar "Indus Water Pollution and Human Casualties in Sindh" organized by the SZABIST Centre for Information and Research in collaboration with the Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum and Oxfam GB, Sindh on Saturday.

District Nazim Makhdoom Rafiquzzaman said that the initial inquiry had indicated that a lot of silt had accumulated in the water ponds from where water was supplied to the people and added that the water was also full of bacteria.

He said that the Sindh government had approved Rs120 million for desilting of the ponds and urged the governor to release the amount without delay. He said that unless the Hyderabad development package announced by the president and other packages were released, the water problem could not be resolved.

MPA Sassui Palijo said the people of Thatta district had also been seriously affected due to the poisonous water. The seminar adopted Hyderbad declaration, demanding a judicial inquiry headed by a supreme court judge to probe into the deaths of innocent people in Hyderabad, Kotri, Thatta, Sehwan, Manchhar and other towns due to consumption of poisonous water.

The declaration demanded that the judge should also ascertain as to how much water was released from the Manchhar lake and how much water was available in the barrages of Sindh.

The seminar demanded that a financial package should be announced for the victims of poisonous water not only in Hyderabad but also in other towns and a scientific investigation should be conducted to find out the causes of Indus water pollution.

The seminar urged the authorities concerned to ensure the purification of water in all towns and release of water downstream Kotri barrage for the whole year. It demanded that the release of RBOD effluent into the Manchhar lake should be stopped forthwith and the MNV drain should not be made a part of RBOD but used as a natural drain.