LARKANA: Growers have urged the government to impose irrigation emergency in the rice growing belt in the wake of acute shortage of water in the North Western Canal, Saifullah Magsi branch, Ratodero branch, Warah branch and Shahdadkot branch.

They feared if enough water was not released into canals and tributaries the paddy nurseries would completely dry up.

The paddy sowing season had already delayed and with the little water they have the growers who relied only on this crop could hardly prepare 19 per cent of paddy nurseries, said Mohammad Ishaque Mug­heri, president of the Sindh Abadgar Board’s Qambar-Shahdad­kot chapter on Wednesday.

The extent of irresponsibility the government showed to this important sector could be gauged from the fact that at present there was no chief engineer to look after affairs of the right bank of the Indus.

The chief engineer of the left bank had been given additional charge to look after the right bank, he said.

There were not even executive engineers for Warah branch, Saifullah Magsi branch and NWC, which spoke volumes for the interest the provincial government took in the farmers issues, he said.

The catchment area of Shahdad­kot branch is about 119,000 acres and that of Saifullah Magsi branch 115,000 acres and others 157,000 acres of land, according to sources in the irrigation department.

So far, paddy nurseries had been planted on 19 per cent land and they were now withering due to lack of water, the growers said.

Mr Mugheri said the Saifullah Magsi branch which should have been flowing with five feet water had currently only nine inches water. The Shahdadkot branch that should have 2.5 feet water was flowing with a few inches, which fed more than 100 small tributaries and channels, he said.

The department had though imposed rotation plan due to acute shortage of water to provide water to at least paddy nurseries, said Abdul Khalique Khoso, a grower of Qubo Saeed Khan.

“But it’s no use to us as we get water after six days in rotation. Majority of channels and offshoots have dried up. We don’t have even drinking water for us and the cattle, what to talk of water supply in Shahdadkot town,” he said.

Tanveri Shakh (irrigation branch) which was the only source of water for Shahdadkot town water supply scheme had no water, he said.

Qambar-Shahdadkot rice belt had already been hit by the poisonous water coming from Balochistan which had completely destroyed thousands of acres of fertile land famous for wheat crop, he said, adding the area had earlier received a severe battering in the super floods and heavy rains.

Some of the tributaries which are fed by NWC, Saifullah Magsi branch and Shahdadkot branch are: Tanveri Shakh, Mastoi, Soonharo, Bhutta, Gulshah, Begari feeder, Maqsoodo, Qubo, Shahbaig, Dhori, Imdad minor, Noorpur, Gandakho left and right and Patooja etc.

Maulana Khalid Umar, a rice grower, said that there was neither water nor officers present in their offices during the peak of season of paddy sowing in this area.

“What good can we expect in acute water shortage coupled with absence of executive engineers, only destruction and damage,” he said.

The rotation plan had proved completely ineffective and insufficient as there was acute water shortage even in feeding canals. “When we have no water now to keep prepared paddy nurseries alive, how can we expect to transplant them when water is supplied belatedly,” he said.

Abdul Khalique Khoso, general secretary of SAB’s Qambar-Shahdadkot chapter, said that on the one hand hapless growers were going through hard days due to water shortage the influential persons of the area had illegally installed 120 pipes in Khirthar and 14 pipes in Saifullah Magsi branch from where even people from Balochistan were lifting water.

The senior engineer of irrigation department should stay three days in Shahdadkot to look after the water situation but unfortunately he was not seen even in weeks while sub-divisional officers seldom attended phone calls, he complained.

He said that fish ponds which were receiving water from Imdad minor were getting dried up and fishes were dying. If the government did not take remedial measures immediately, the situation might lead to an upsurge in crimes in the area, warned farmers.

Published in Dawn, June 26th, 2014