MIRPURKHAS, Nov 1: About 29,000 watercourses will be lined in Sindh at an estimated cost of Rs22 billion to stop the waste of huge quantities of irrigation water.

This was stated by the project-director of the National Drainage Programme, Mr Mohammad Younus Dhaga, at a meeting held here on Monday.

The meeting reviewed the pace of work of the lining of watercourses in Mirpurkhas, Sanghar and Tharparkar districts.

Mirpurkhas DCO Siddique Memon, Sanghar DCO Allah Ditto Shar, Mithi EDO revenue, the director-general of the NDP, Mr Shaukat Ali Rahimo and representatives of growers and banks attended the meeting.

Mr Dhaga told the participants that it was a programme of the national importance and each department should play its role.

He urged the officials to complete work within the stipulated period.

He said the federal government had launched the programme for the benefit of farmers as it would bear all expenses except labour.

He urged the farmers to form their associations at the watercourse level and get registered with the EDO community.

Mr Dhaga called upon the bank officials to ensure the opening of accounts of farmers' associations in their branches.

He said the government had announced prizes at the district level for the best performance in the national programme.

He said the first prize would be of Rs10 million and Rs5 million and Rs3 million would be for those districts obtaining the second and the third position, respectively.

Shaukat Ali Rahimo briefed the meting about the aims and objects of the programme and said that 493 watercourses would be lined with a cost of Rs291.553 million in Mirpurkhas, Sanghar and Tharparkar districts during the current year.

He advised the growers to come forward and get benefit of the programme.

Earlier, the representatives of growers Ali Gohar Shah, Umer Bughio, Ghulam Akbar Dars, Chaudhry Ehsan Illahi, and representatives of the Tharparkar Bhanomal Bheel and Faqeer Hussain Chandio apprised the meeting about the problems of growers.

They called for an uneven level of watercourses and repair of those with faults.

They demanded that the government should include remaining watercourses in the programme which might not be lined under the LBOD.