LARKANA, June 21: A large number of growers staged a rally in Qubo Saeed Khan on Tuesday to protest against an acute shortage of water in the Saifullah Magsi Branch and the SKT Shakh.

The protestors, carrying dried up paddy saplings, blocked the road leading to Khuzdar and Jhal Magsi for one hour in the town where a strike was also observed.

Speaking on the occasion, Mohammed Isqhaq Mugheri, president, Sindh Abadgar Board, Shahdadkot; Wajid Chandio, nazim, Aitbar Khan Chandio union council; and others alleged the irrigation engineers were releasing water to Balochistan first which was intensifying water shortage in the neighbouring Sindh area.

Despite repeated approaches, they alleged, they had failed to locate the concerned irrigation engineer to know about the water situation. They deplored that on the one hand paddy nurseries were drying up due to non-availability of water and, on the other, population of the area was hardly getting water for drinking purpose.

They said that the Tanvri Shakh, the main source of water supply to Shahdadkot, had dried up and people were forced to drink highly brackish water resulting into spread of water-borne diseases.