Protest at Pakistan canal plan

Jill McGivering BBC Asia analyst

The affair is inflaming old Sindh rivalries with Punjab

In the Pakistan province of Sindh, an estimated 1,000 to 1,500 people staged a protest on Wednesday about plans to build a canal which, they claim, will deplete their water supply.

The right to water is a key issue of contention in many parts of the subcontinent - and increasingly a focus of political tension.

The demonstrators had gathered from all over the province.

In a peaceful protest, they demanded an end to the building of the canal, planned upstream in Punjab province.

They say there used to be an abundant supply of water in Sindh, a traditionally fertile region, heavily planted with wheat and cash crops like cotton.

But now they feel their access to the waters of the Indus river, on which they depend, is under threat.

Hydroelectric dispute

The canal is just the latest in a series of controversial projects which Sindh farmers say are taking water from their lands.

Water is becoming increasingly precious in the subcontinent

The issue is proving a unifying factor for the Sindh people and has inflamed old rivalries with Punjabis upstream.

Recently, the provincial parliament adopted a resolution against the building of the canal, although they cannot stop the federal government going ahead.

Sindh nationalists have used the concerns to whip up passionate feeling.

They describe the water projects as theft.

Environmental factors like global warming, along with more intensive farming methods, are making water an increasingly precious commodity.

India and Pakistan are currently arguing about Indian plans to build a hydroelectric power plant at Baglihar, also on the Indus, but further upstream.

Environmental groups say the current focus on big water projects, dams, canals and reservoirs, is misguided.

They say they are inefficient and can have a devastating impact on small, often poor farming communities.

They want a return to small-scale solutions such as traditional water-harvesting methods which, they say, are better suited to meeting long-term demands.