MIRPURKHAS, Nov 23: Sindh’s agriculture sector has been adversely damaged as Punjab is not sharing water shortage with it and Sindh alone is bearing the burden of the shortage and consequently facing a historical water shortage of 65 per cent.

These view were expressed by the president of Sindh Abadgar Board, Syed Ali Gohar Shah, vice president, Haji Abdul Ghafoor Mahar, and general secretary, Imtiaz Panhwar, in an joint statement here on Friday.

They regretted that Sukkur Barrage was being supplied 19,000 cusecs water against its demand of 40,000 cusecs while 5,000 cusecs water was being provided to Kotri Barrage.

They said that this shortage had compelled provincial irrigation department to observe rotation programme under which water was supplied to distributaries once in a fortnight as result of which crops were losing productivity day by day.

They added that in district Mirpurkhas, wheat crop was sowed earlier than other areas of the country but the crop was adversely affected due to acute shortage of water as it needed water after a week of sowing.

Under these circumstances, they said, negative impact of rotation was affecting wheat cultivation.

They demanded of the irrigation authorities to supply sufficient quantity of water to Nara Canal till completion of wheat sowing so that wheat sowing target could be achieved.

The SAB leaders lamented that despite assurance by President Gen Pervez Musharraf, Punjab was drawing more water than its share from Indus River.

ARRESTED: Four persons including two police constables were arrested late on Thursday night on charges of gun-running.