HYDERABAD: A meeting of the Sindh Abadgar Board discussed the issue of shortage of water in the province. Participants from different districts said the distributories were under neck-breaking rotation. Under this rotation programme, water supply remained closed for two to three weeks.
It was said that the rotation had been continuing since March and had resulted in 30 per cent of sowing compared to last year at this time. There had been losses in already cultivated crops such as mangoes, sugar cane and vegetables, it was said.
Water released by the Indus River System Authority (Irsa) was still reaching the system, but the demand for water continued to increase. In this scenario, the Sindh Abadgar Board expressed the fear that such amount of water may not be enough and would not clear the backlog of the last two months of severe shortage.
The participants of the meeting stated that the current shortage of water against the backdrop of the losses to the agriculture last year due to falling commodity prices and reduced production would further take the agricultural economy down.
In this scenario, it is also important to understand that unlike other provinces, the groundwater in Sindh was negligible and water released from the Chashma Barrage would take another 15 days to get to the irrigation system in Sindh.
It was said that Sindh had to suffer more losses, as the water was not reduced proportionally, but through a 3-tier formula which translated to more shortages to Sindh and less to Punjab. The meeting observed that the water in the system had been increasing and currently there was a storage of about 2MAF, therefore, it was critical to enhance the indent and supply of water to Sindh.
The Sindh Abadgar Board reminded the federal and the provincial governments that the agriculture sector was already in the crisis, and by not providing irrigation water when the water was available meant pushing the agriculture sector towards jeopardy.
The meeting of the board was presided over by Mahmood Nawaz Shah and attended by Syed Nadeem Shah, Malook Nizamani, Mohammed Aslam Mari, Mohammed Taha Memon, Ali Mardan Shah, Sarmad Nizamani, Murad Ali Shah and others.
On the other hand, a meeting of the Sindh Chamber of Agriculture was held at the organisation's headquarters in Hyderabad, chaired by the Chief Patron of the Chamber Dr Syed Nadeem Qamar.
During the meeting, farmers protested against the water shortage in Sindh, stating that water was currently available in the system, yet an artificial shortage was being created to deliberately trouble the farmers.
The growers body alleged that lower-level staff in the irrigation department were selling water in exchange for heavy bribes. The farmers demanded that the irrigation minister immediately curb the corruption of lower staff and reinstate the weekly canal closure system.
The meeting also voiced serious concern over the approaching monsoon season and the complete lack of maintenance work on LBOD and other drainage systems. It was noted that LBOD was Asia’s largest drainage system, and negligence in its maintenance was alarming.
The growers’ body called for an investigation into the allocation of funds and demanded reinforcement of embankments before the monsoon.