HYDERABAD, Dec 12: The DCO has asked the irrigation department and the Sindh Irrigation and Drainage Authority to furnish a complete and authentic database of watercourses in the district within three days so that work of lining watercourses under the national programme can be accelerated.

The DCO, Mohammad Hussain Syed, was presiding over a meeting to review the watercourse lining work in the district on Saturday. He expressed concern over the cold response by the irrigation department and Sida in implementation of the national watercourse lining programme and stressed the need for close coordination between organisations concerned and stakeholders to successfully complete the project and meet the water shortage.

He praised performance of the on-farm water management, Hyderabad, and said against 254 watercourses to be completed by the end of the current financial year, 287 applications from farmers had been received. He said survey of 146 watercourses had been completed and work orders for 39 watercourses had been issued.

The DCO informed the meeting that 215 watercourse associations had been formed, 10 of which had been registered. However, he said due to incomplete documentation and non-availability of National Identity Cards of office-bearers of the associations, the process of registration was being delayed.

He called upon the farmers to complete their documents so that the work of lining their watercourses could be initiated. He said work on 16 watercourses had been started, out of which lining of one watercourse and earth work of five other channels had been completed. He said the Sindh chief minister had been invited to inaugurate the first lined watercourse of the project in the Matiari taluka.

SEMINAR: The Ramaq Centre for Awareness and Social Responsibility, Lahore, organized its seventh seminar on "Autism awareness" at a hotel here on Sunday. Speakers at the one-day seminar said autism was a developmental disability about which very little was known in Pakistan. They said the Ramaq centre had been running an awareness campaign for two years.