KARACHI, Sept 3: President Gen Pervez Musharraf said on Tuesday the government would increase the level of Mangla Dam by 30 feet which would ensure the availability of an additional 300mft water for Sindh

Addressing the Nazims of Khairpur, Sukkur and Ghotki and some councillors at the Governor’s House, the president said he would lay foundation of the project later this month and it would be completed in four years.

The president said that Allah had blessed Pakistan with plenty of water and “our problem is not its shortage but its equitable distribution”.

He said it was an internal matter of Sindh that how it distributed the available irrigation water. At the national level, he guaranteed the equitable distribution of water among all the provinces.

Referring to the construction of the Rainee Canal, the president said the government had not yet finalized the project and he had decided to take the Nazims of Ghotki, Sukkur and Khairpur into confidence. If the Nazims did not agree with the project it would be scrapped, the president stressed.

Gen Musharraf assured that he would not allow any excess to be done to Sindh. On the contrary, he promised, Sindh would get more than its share. He asked the Nazims to have faith in his government.

Later, the Nazims of Ghotki, Sukkur and Khairpur assured the president that they were not against the project. However, they requested the president to remove the misunderstanding and doubts pertaining to the project.

The president assured them that the project would be modified in the light of their suggestions.

Earlier, the Wapda chairman said that 164km long Rainee Canal would be completed at a cost of Rs10 billion.—APP