KARACHI - Water experts and civil society organisations called on Wednesday the faulty designed Left Bank Outfall Drain (LBOD) - not the rains - as the major cause of widespread devastation and displacement in Badin district. The World Bank and Asian Development Bank-funded LBOD project was aimed to bring drainage effluents from the upstream and dispose of them into the Arabian Sea in Badin. But due to faults in the design, drainage effluents, instead of going into the sea, have been destroying lands and internationally recognised wetlands through brining sea water (into the saline canal). The water experts and civil society organisations demanded the World Bank, which funded the project in the 1990s, to pay complete reparation of the losses caused due to the LBOD. The people of Sindh have already formed an Anti-LBOD movement and written letters to the United Nations, World Bank and other world bodies concerned to intervene in the matter and use their influence for initiating a compensation process as well as redesigning of the saline canal. The devastation in Badin and migration of over 1.5 million people from their homes are only due to the faulty design of the LBOD, said a water expert, Mustafa Talpur, TheNation spoke to. Talpur, who took active part in mobilising the movement against the damages due to the LBOD, said that stakeholders, water experts, affectees, government officials and non-governmental organisations formed an anti-LBOD committee that held public tribunals, organised protest demonstrations and wrote letters to the WB and other international organisations highlighting the peoples misery and informing them about the devastation caused by the ill-planned and faulty designed LBOD. In the letter, the WB and ADB were encouraged to take measures to fix the problem and compensate the affected people, who suffered due to their ill-planning he said, adding that a WB inspection panel has produced a very comprehensive report on the violations of the banks policies and the devastation due to the project. Despite clear directives of the executive directors, WB management has not been serious in resolving the environmental, social and economic problems generated by the project. Another pioneer of the anti-LBOD movement, Muhammad Ali Shah, held that the World Bank and Asian Development Bank must compensate those who lost their near and dear ones, houses and crops in the 1999 cyclones, 2003 floods and this years floods. There must be an independent commission to assess the losses (of lives, livelihood and environment) incurred by coastal communities from 1994 to the present year. All these losses must be paid, asserted Shah, who is also the chairman of the Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum. He demanded the WB and ADB to write off the entire loans of the LBOD project, saying there was no moral or economic justification for paying loans for a totally failed project. He opined that the compensation amount must be spent on rehabilitation of the affected people in collaboration with the local governments and communities. Khadim Talpur, a social activist from Badin, demanded that the LBOD spinal drain be closed before entering into Badin district. Until a proper arrangement is made, drainage effluents coming through the LBOD could be diverted to the Dhoro Puran Outfall Drain (DPOD), he opined. The coastal belt of Badin district had come under sea water that turned fertile lands into saline lands, he said, and added that after rainwater was drained out, the WB should initiate a livelihood development plan for the affected areas in collaboration with the provincial and district governments. National Assembly Speaker Dr Fehmida Mirza, who hails from Badin, had, in her media talks, termed the devastation in the district an outcome of ill-designing of the LBOD which, according to her, must be redesigned by the federal govt.