Activists in Badin vow to resume campaign for water.

BADIN -- A group calling itself the Save Badin Action Committee (SBAC) on Monday announced that it would resume its sustained campaign in the first week of next month for the removal of all barricades from irrigation channels of this district as per the relevant orders of the Sindh High Court.

Speaking to the media, Mir Noor Ahmed Talpur, Azizullah Dero, Khalil Ahmed Bhurgari, Mir Ghulam Rasool Talpur, Syed Khuda Dino Shah and other members of the committee recalled that the court had on Sept 8 last year ordered formation of a committee with the task of removing all impediments obstructing flow of water in the irrigation channels of Badin district. They said the court had directed that the committee should submit its report within the next three months.

They said the department and Sida and were also flouting the court order by releasing water into flood canals at a time when most areas of this district were not getting even drinking water.

They lamented that the irrigation department and officials of the Sindh Irrigation and Drainage Authority (Sida) had failed to comply with the court's order. They said the department and Sida were still dilly-delaying on the formation of the committee even after a lapse of over four months.

They pointed out that the court had also asked the proposed committee to look into the complaints regarding diversion of irrigation water to the lands of influential figures from the command area of Sukkur Barrage.

The activists said that they intended to nominate World Bank representatives as a party when a relevant contempt petition would be taken up by the high court's Hyderabad bench on Jan 22.

They said World Bank was funding the irrigation project costing Rs6 billion.

They urged the WB...