KARACHI: Presiding over a meeting on water shortage in the right bank area of the Sukkur Barrage, Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah directed the provincial irrigation department to overcome the water shortage and provide water to growers as Kharif crops would be affected badly otherwise.
The meeting was held at the CM House on Wednesday and attended by Irrigation Minister Jam Khan Shoro, Secretary to CM Raheem Shaikh, Irrigation Secretary Zarif Khero and others.
The CM said the Sukkur Barrage Right Bank, Larkana was created so that 2,094,975 acres of land could be irrigated properly. To this, Irrigation Minister Jam Khan Shoro said that 185,000 acres of Balochistan were also irrigated by the right bank canals.
The meeting was informed that three canals - Dadu Canal, Rice Canal and North West Canal - were off-taking from the Right Side of the River Indus.
Shoro said the Rice Canal fed more than 100 off-taking channels including branches, and major and minor distributaries. The command area of Rice Canal was scattered over four districts, and no major complaints of water shortage had been reported by land owners in tail-end areas.
The CM was told that the availability of water in the Rice Canal was 80 to 89 per cent of its allocated discharge and it was functioning satisfactorily.
The irrigation secretary said 12,800 cusecs of water against an allocation of 14,355 cusecs was flowing in the Rice Canal that showed a shortage of 11 per cent as of June 10, 2024.
It was pointed out that the availability of water in Warah Branch Canal was 85 to 90 per cent of its requirements. The command area of the Warah Branch Canal was scattered over three districts - Shikarpur, Larkana and Kambar-Shahdadkot. The Warah Branch Canal fed 47 off-taking channels including branches, and major and minor distributaries, and water was available in the entire system of the Branch, the CM was told.
The CM was informed that about 50 per cent of the allocated share was available in the Dadu Canal and the tail-end below Dadu city had been severely affected.
It was pointed out that the distribution system of Dadu Canal comprised more than 60 off-taking channels and they were facing shortage of water due to the Sukkur Barrage gate problem.
The CM directed the irrigation secretary to resolve water shortage in the tail-end areas by operating pumping stations. The meeting was told that measures were being taken to overcome the water shortage in the Dadu Canal.
Shah directed the irrigation dept to formulate a rotation plan for the off-taking channels to overcome the shortage of irrigation water.
The irrigation secretary said that almost 50 per cent of the allocated share was available in the North-West Canal. He added that efforts were being taken to minimise the shortage of water in Baluchistan.
The CM stressed the importance of the North-West Canal as the primary water source for Balochistan. He instructed the irrigation secretary to tackle the water shortage in the region.
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