Tail-end farmers in Sindh migrate to escape water scarcity, poverty

HYDERABAD: Uneven distribution of water in the irrigation system, mostly watercourses in tail-end areas, has forced farmers to migrate to other areas with their families in search of better livelihood opportunities.

These findings came up in the discussion at a wider forum of farmers, irrigation and agriculture department officials, researchers, academia and social development representatives, who delivered their presentations on the occasion of World Water Day 2019 on Tuesday in Mirpurkhas city.

The event was organised jointly by Laar Humanitarian and Development Programme (LHDP), Research and Development Foundation (RDF), and Sindh Irrigation Drainage Authority (SIDA) in collaboration with Nara Canal Area Water Board.

Mir Aijaz Talpur, representative of Tail-end Growers Association, expressed concerns over the uneven distribution in canals and watercourses. “The people depending on agriculture do not have an option other than migration, leaving their abodes behind in search of better livelihood,” he added.

He criticised the government and certain influential landlords for depriving the poor farmers in tail-end areas from getting their fair water share from the largest Nara Canal in Mirpurkhas district via water courses.

Urging the government to take notice of the situation, he rejected the narrative that any other province (Punjab) or any neighbouring country (India) stole Sindh’s water. Instead, he called out the politically influential landlords, who maintain banana and mango orchards as well as all other crops, while the poor remain deprived and exploited.

The gathering attracted men and women farmers from Kot Ghulam Muhammad barrage and Potho Minor, Dighri, the distributaries of Nara Canal. These two barrages cultivate around 15,000 acre land through 31 watercourses.

Nara canal runs from the Sukkur barrage through Khairpur, Sanghar, Mirpurkhas and Tharparkar Districts to the Jamrao canal. Nara is the longest canal in Pakistan, running for about 364 kilometres with designed capacity of 13,602 cusec; however, presently, it carries only 5,700 cusecs.

Prof M Ismail Kumbhar of Sindh Agriculture University Tandojam said, “Though Sindh has strong irrigation system with 14 canals and around 5,000 watercourses, we are witnessing migration from tail-end areas of the province because of increasing poverty.”

He pointed to loss of crop productivity due to water scarcity, soil degradation and excessive use of chemical input as one of the causes of increasing poverty, which has pushed 30-35 percent people in Sindh below the poverty line.

“We are witnessing increasing malnutrition among children. More than 50 percent children under five are reportedly affected by malnutrition, and do not have access to safe food. Moreover, due to increasing unemployment, we can see the trend of suicide incidents in once agriculture-rich areas,” Kumbhar informed.

He urged the government to address joblessness and poverty in tail end areas, and asked growers to adopt sustainable agriculture practices and switch to crops that need lower water and chemical input.

Mirpurkhas Division Commissioner Abdul Waheed Shaikh, an agriculture engineer, spoke of initiatives to introduce drought resilient mechanism in Thararkar district. “Presently, we have motivated 2,500 families to prepare kitchen gardens in courtyards and backyards to produce their own safe food through government support,” he said.

The commissioner said there was need to adopt water recycling and reuse initiatives at the local level, improve efficiency of the irrigation system and methods, and to begin rain water conservation.

Shaikh said that though drought cannot be stopped, it was possible to minimise its impact by using new initiatives.

Speaking of taxes, he said world over people paid around 30 percent income tax, but here growers do not have the concept of paying taxes. He also urged for value-addition to earn and to create employment opportunities for locals.

Iqbal Hyder of LHDP talked about severity of the situation, and said hundreds of children die due to water and sanitation-related ailments. “Presently, we want to have availability of water, safe and pure water will be the next step in this situation.”

Muhammad Khan Mari, former engineer and underground water expert, pointed to the dumping of sewerage, municipal and industrial waste into the canals which was poisoning the water supply.

“We can see Badin district and other areas are getting arsenic water,” he lamented, adding that groundwater too was contaminated due to excessive use of chemical fertiliser and pesticides in crops.