HARIPUR, Aug 10: The Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz group) will oppose the construction of a water supply scheme on the River Dour in Abbottabad, according to former provincial minister and member of the party's central executive council Yusuf Ayub Khan.

He was speaking at a news conference at the press club here and was accompanied by president of the Anjuman Kashtkaran Haripur Malik Gohar Rehman and a number of farming community representatives.

In July, the provincial government, on the request of the Abbottabad district government, given go-ahead to Japan International Cooperation Agency for the construction of a gravity-flow water supply scheme for Abbottabad city on the river upstream near Aziz Abad some 10 kilometres from Abbottabad city.

The project is officially estimated to cost more than Rs1.45 billion out of which Rs300 million would be contributed by the federal and the provincial governments. The remainder of the cost amounting to more than Rs1.15 billion would be borne by JICA as grant-in-aid.

Referring to a meeting held at the office of Local Government & Rural Development Peshawar, last month, participated by the nazmeen and officials of irrigation and public health departments of Haripur and Abbottabad, Mr Khan said that the provincial government had principally approved the scheme for which the district nazim Haripur and DCO had shown their consent.

Referring to the project's site plan of the project, Mr Khan told that about 90 per cent of water from three major perennial tributaries of river Dour being diverted for consumption of Abbottabad and only 10 per cent of the three tributaries would be allowed to flow down to Haripur.

He expressed the fear that the project would affect the water share of Haripur, ruin the district's agriculture system and cause a dispute between the two neighbouring districts.

He said that since the agriculture system of the district hinged on irrigation, any attempt to slash water share of Haripur would render most of the district barren and scores of people jobless.