Hundreds of protesters, led by Karachi students and other parts of Sindh, joined on Tuesday along with members of civil society to denounce the controversial channel project, warning that the imminent “water wars could explode in civil disturbances” throughout the metropolis.
On February 15, Punjab Prime Minister Maryam Nawaz, and the head of the Army staff, the general also opened the ambitious Cholistan project to water the lands of South Punjab in the middle of a public uproar and strong reserves in Sindh. The Sindh Assembly also approved a unanimous resolution against the project in March.
The last months have seen the national and civil parties protests against the proposed channel project.
In the joint call of the Student Alliance of Save Indo and the Karachi Bachao Tehreek (KBT), the protesters marched from the Teen Talwar to Fawara Chowk today, transporting banners and singing slogans to denounce the water problems existing in the province.
Talking with Dawn.comMuneer Hussain, leader of the Save Indando Student Alliance and a student of the Fire Hala, said the students of all Karachi were united against the problem of the channels.
“Karachi’s water comes from the Sindhu River, and the construction of new channels will drastically reduce the supply of the city. If that happens, the water wars could explode and spread through Karachi as civil disturbances,” he said.
“Citizens [of Karachi] I need to understand that the problem is not specific to farmers, but a problem of survival for all. ”
The protesters also gathered outside the governor’s house for a brief moment, claiming that the governor of the city had accepted the project before the public protest.
Bisma Barkat, a member of the KBT organizing committee, said Dawn.com“There are multiple voices present [at the protest] Of all areas of life in Sindh. It makes no sense not to be one of those voices because this problem is existential for some [people]. “
He called the channel project a “theft of land, water and rights of people”, and added that “capitalist interests combined with the State want to remove the rights of the common man [and] Which belongs to the common man. “
Talking about how the project would affect Karachi, Barkat said that 85 percent of the city’s water came from Lake Keenjhar, which was fed by the Indo River.
“If more channels are built on the Indo River, that water will not reach Keenjhar and, ultimately, it will not reach the common man in Karachi,” he said.
She continued: “If you don’t get water, how do you direct a metropolitan city that directs your factories and industries, which use the poor?
“Even if the channels, golf courses are drawn [in Karachi] It will still be maintained, but they are the poor people of Karachi the most affected, ”he added.
Early in the day, Sindh’s prime minister Murad Ali Shah urged lawyers and opposition parties that protested the planned construction of six new channels in the Indo River to avoid causing public inconveniences by blocking roads during the demonstrations.
“Please continue with your protest, we support it, but it does not cause suffering for the public,” he said as he was going to a press conference in Karachi.
Calling the protests of lawyers and “well” opposition parties while supporting the cause of the people of Sindh, Shah urged protesters to take into account public inconveniences.
“They should also consider the difficulties that people face and take care of that,” he said.
“Protesting blocking roads and causing pain to their own people from Sindh, is this a protest?” asked.
Later in the day, PPP legislators organized a strike of the Senate session in protest against the contentious channel project in the middle of a continuous dispute with the ally of the PML-N coalition.
