The flood affected people hailing from Muzaffargarh are observing a three-day hunger strike against World Bank (WB) financed Taunsa Barrage Emergency Rehabilitation and Modernisation Project (TBERMP), which they alleged, has caused massive flood devastation in the district.
The three-day hunger strike is being organised under the aegis of Sindhu Bachao Tarla (SBT) (Save Indus Struggle) - a civil society alliance, comprising the indigenous people, writers, intellectuals, NGOs striving for conservation of river ecology and the rights of people depending upon the river ecology, who are quite active in raising the social and environmental issues, which caused by the TBERMP. "We are observing the hunger strike to highlight the role of WB-funded Taunsa remodelling project that caused unprecedented flood disaster in the district," said Fazal-i-Rab a representative of the SBT.
The protesters complained that the colossal scale of the devastation was largely because of the structural and design-related flaws, which were conveyed to the bank much before the disaster. The scale of disaster would not have been so enormous had the WB responded to the flaws identified by the local people under the platform of the SBT, they added.-PR