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Friday March 29, 2024

Sindh promises

By Editorial Board
August 26, 2018

The first meeting of the Sindh cabinet gave the impression that there is a sense of urgency that did not exist in their last term in office. With the PPP managing to retain power in Sindh, most have come to expect the same lethargic approach that led to criticism of its last two governments. This time, the start has been promising at least. The long-promised desalination plant for water-starved Karachi has been approved and one would hope that this will not be another pipedream. More importantly, the cabinet has declared Thar and parts of Umerkot ‘drought hit.’ Almost 750,000 families are affected by the on-going drought, which has been caused by low rainfall. The measures on the table for now remain temporary. Drought in Thar has become a regular feature and each time it is dealt with as a separate crisis that is unrelated to last one. The region has been drought hit for the last five years and the response needed is more than the distribution of 50kg of wheat per family and delaying the collection of taxes as proposed by the Sindh cabinet.

One would want the Sindh government to be able to propose a more stable solution to the drought in Thar. The people of the region have suffered for far too long. The crisis is accentuated by the larger crisis in the province pertaining to irrigation. The irrigation secretary has warned that the rice crop in the province had suffered major losses due to water shortages. The shortage in Sindh has been an alarming 58 percent, which calls into question the larger water policy. Much of the problem lies in the fact that IRSA failed to provide accurate predictions of shortages. The IRSA prediction was around 31 percent, which was set to go down to 10 percent. If accurate predictions were available in the first place, farmers could have adjusted to crops that require less water. What will be needed on this front is a more long-term policy. The Sindh chief minister has said that the water availability situation will get worse in the future, which would mean that it is essential to come up with solutions now. Delaying the rice cultivation season and embargos on rice cultivation are measures that seem to be under consideration. One would hope that long-term solutions can be found on the irrigation front. Water is at the forefront of the challenges the Sindh cabinet has taken up. This will need to be dealt with on a war footing.