Politicians urge steps to avert water crisis

By Our Reporter

KARACHI, March 9: The growing water crisis and accompanying power shortage, threatening the agriculture and industrial sectors, has been deplored by political parties.

The Secretary-General of the Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaf, Mairaj Mohammad Khan, has urged the chief executive, Gen Pervez Musharraf, to address the problem immediately because it not only threatened a crisis in agriculture but the sharp decline in Hydel power generation was likely to cause electricity shortage, affecting industrial and agricultural sectors.

In a letter addressed to Gen Musharraf, he said the regime should undertake immediate and short-term steps to meet the all-pervasive crisis of water and power.

The army engineering corps should make an overall plan on an urgent basis to deal with the situation, he suggested.

In this context, Mr Khan suggested the construction of small dams and reservoirs in the hilly areas of all the provinces.

He said the lining of canals should be undertaken to conserve water, 30 per cent of which was currently wasted, and that tubewells andwindmills be installed.

The PTI secretary-general said IMF-World Bank packages had resulted in price hike of petrol, diesel, gas, electricity, transport and devaluation of the rupee, and the water and power crises had burdened the people further.

He warned that if immediate remedial steps were not taken, the country would plunge into a multi-dimensional civil war.

MUTTAHIDA: Secretary General of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement Dr Imran Farooq has also deplored the government's inability to deal with the continuous fall in the water level in the rivers.

He demanded that Sindh should be provided water according to its requirement for agriculture.

He said 80 per cent of the water supply to the province had been slashed and a conspiracy had allegedly been hatched to curtail the remaining supply to damage the Kharif crop.

He said the present government's policy would turn the province into a desert and would create serious water shortage for drinking in the rural and urban settlements.

Dr Imran Farooq warned the government that if it failed to overcome the problem, people would be forced to come out on to the street to register their protest.

http://www.dawn.com/2001/03/10/nat17.htm

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), March 10, 2001