THATTA, May 26: Jeay Sindh Mahaz-Chandio led by Riaz Chandio organised a rally in Sujawal town on Sunday and staged a sit-in on the Thatta-Badin section of the National Highway to register its protest against unavailability of irrigation water for sowing crops in the tail-end areas.

Vehicular traffic on the highway was blocked for at least three hours because of the protest.

Speaking to participants, Riaz Chandio said that the Indus River System Authority (Irsa) had recently announced its plan to release 130,000 cusecs from Tarbela Dam saying that it would take about a month to reach the province.

He said that around 62 water channels including Goongri, Gheri, Khalsa, Malhya, Bosano and Pinjari were lying dry and there was a drought-like situation in the Sujawal subdivision.

He said that in Punjab, rice and cotton seeds were in the germinating phase but here farmers were still waiting to sow their seeds. He said that since the water hadn’t been released so far 117,823 hectares of land had been lost because of sea intrusion. JSM chairman said that if adequate measures were not taken, including the release of at least 38 million acre feet of required water in the Indus River, the perennial fast gushing of sea water would further invade cities in Thatta and Badin districts and would also ruin the ecosystem.

Criticising President Asif Ali Zardari and the PML-N Nawaz Sharif, he said that they were feathers of the same bird and did not deliver to the smaller nationalities, such as Sindhis in particular.

Mr Chandio said that it had been Nawaz Sharif who had scrapped the Keti Bunder project and had then broached the subject of Kalabagh dam. He said that all flood canals from Tarbela Dam to the Guddu barrage, including the Taunsa-Panjnad and Chashma-Jhelum link canals, were full of water while the people living in Sindh were deprived of their legitimate right.

He said that according to the 1945 Water Accord, people of Sindh were the custodians of the Indus River, but in the following treaties including 1991 Water Accord, Punjab had become the major beneficiary and Sindh had been deprived of water. He said that the main source of Sindh’s survival, the Indus, had now become a hostage of Punjab, which was dominating Sindh and other small nationalities with its power politics.

He said that Nawaz Shah Bhadai and Mangla Dam were death warrants for the people of Sindh which generated trillions of dollars of revenue for the country.

The JSM chairman also announced to block the National Highway near Kandiaro on May 30 to put pressure on the government to release water in the Indus River and accept the right of Sindh on water share.