HYDERABAD, Nov 17: The secretary general of the Sindhu Agricultural Forum has said that the people of Sindh are highly disappointed at findings of consultants’ report on water requirements downstream Kotri.

The forum rejected the consultants’ estimate of 8.6 MAF as enough for basic needs and agricultural farming and environmental requirements of the coastal areas of Sindh.

In a statement issued here on Thursday, he said that even in the 1991 water accord, the minimum water requirement of 10MAF was recognized. The accord also accepted the need for assessing the actual water requirement of downstream Kotri areas which faced threat from the intruding sea.

It is strange, he said that the experts have calculated the requirements at only 8.6 MAF.

He said that according to Wapda and federal government’s assertion, 35MAF water was going waste every year below Kotri and yet more than 1.2 million acre land had been eaten away by the sea.

Then how can water flow of 8.6 MAF save the Sindh’s coast and meet its drinking and farming needs, he asked.

He said that experts estimates were either inaccurate or exposed the fallacy of Wapda and federal government’s claim that 35MAF water was flowing below Kotri every year.

He said the experts should review their narrow water estimates for reclamation and revitalization of affected areas downstream Kotri.

On behalf of the people of Sindh, Mr Memon demanded that fresh study be conducted to assess true requirements of water for the Sindh coast by UN experts to meet the constitutional needs of the 1991 water accord.

He said that in fact the study should have been completed by 1992 and due to discriminatory policies of Wapda and the federal government the task had not been completed even after the passage of more than 13 years.

PLF: The Hyderabad chapter of the People’s Lawyers Forum at a meeting held here on Thursday demanded that Benazir Bhutto and Mian Nawaz Sharif be allowed to return home to plug the political vacuum.

Bashir Ahmed advocate, president of the District Bar Association, presided over the meeting.

The provincial president of the forum, Mr Imdad Ali Awan, Shafi Mohammad Chandio, Abdul Khaliq Laghari, Anwar Jatoi, Aijaz Mohammad Solangi, Miral Shah, Taj Mohammad Keerio and Mahidar Kumar attended the meeting.

The meeting said that there was no genuine political leadership in the country which had created disappointment among the people.

It claimed that only Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif could fill the political vacuum and eliminate lawlessness, corruption and poverty from the country.

It demanded that the popular leaders be allowed to return to extricate the country from the morass.