Staff Reporter Islamabad
Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Farrukh Habib said Monday Prime Minister Imran Khan is ready to facilitate all the provinces on the water issue.
Habib, speaking at a press conference in Islamabad, said several dams should have been built, but the previous governments did not bother to build them.
The state minister said the government aims at building dams that can store 13 million acre-feet of water in ten years.
“All the provinces can benefit through the construction of dams,” he said, adding the premier cares for all farmers of the country, and the Opposition should not give an impression otherwise.
Taking over the presser, Punjab Minister for Irrigation Mohsin Leghari said that the provincial government could not even think of depriving any farmer of their rights.
The minister said the water was dispersed with a gap of 10 days, and in April, Punjab faced a 49% water shortage, while Sindh’s shortage stood at 9%.
Currently, Punjab is facing a shortage of 22% and Sindh 17%, he added. Leghari said Punjab’s total water accumulation had risen by 2% after the resource came in from Koh-i-Sulaiman (Sulaiman Mountains).
Meanwhile, the leadership of Sindh’s ruling party PPP has announced protests across the province over the water issue. The decision was taken at a meeting of the party’s provincial executive committee.
A meeting of PPP Sindh Executive committee was held under the chairmanship of Nisar Khuhro in which Manzoor Wassan, Waqar Mehdi, Aajiz Dhamrah, Aijaz Jakhrani and others participated.
Expressing concern over severe water shortage and prolonged power outages in Sindh, the meeting said that they would not remain silent on the Federal government’s actions against Sindh.
The PPP leaders discussed a strategy for holding protests across the province against water shortages and load shedding.
The leaders said that the water crisis in Sindh was hurting the agriculture sector. “There is a 40% water shortage in Sindh but instead of rectifying the situation, Irsa is playing the role of the government’s B team”, they said, adding that Sindh’s water is being stolen by installing pumps from Taunsa to Guddu Barrage.
