Only a few districts in Sindh can match Jamshoro’s diversity. The existence of higher seats of learning, a vast industrial area, massive tourism potential, Asia’s biggest freshwater lake Manchhar, reserves of natural resources of gas and oil (four in number), the rain-fed Darawat dam, tobacco cultivation and large hilly tracks make it distinctive in Sindh. And above all shines the ethereal beauty of the shrine of Hazrat Lal Shahbaz Qalandar in Jamshoro’s Sehwan taluka, which attracts people from across Pakistan, nay the subcontinent.

One could write a painful saga about the Manchhar lake in Jamshoro. It attains significant political importance when it comes to the debate on interprovincial irrigation water distribution due to the Kotri barrage, the last controlling point over river Indus. The barrage is considered a benchmark for judicious water distribution among provinces under the 1991 accord.

The right bank district borders Dadu in the north, Thatta in the south, Karachi in the south-west and Hyderabad in the north-east, covering 7.9 per cent of Sindh’s total area, according to population census 2017 figures of the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics. Farmers in most parts of Jamshoro depend on monsoon rainfall for cultivation as they are not connected to the irrigation network. People also opt for spate irrigation, the oldest farming method. Its hilly areas fall in Kohistan and Kachho that turn green during rainfall when several big or small streams/torrents irrigate the landscape. It also faces droughts.

The Ghulam Mohammad Barrage — commonly known as Kotri barrage — is the main source of water supply for Karachi, Hyderabad, Jamshoro, Thatta, Sujawal, Badin and Tando Mohammad Khan. The Water Apportionment Accord 1991 calls for releasing 10MAF (million acre-feet) minimum escapages downstream Kotri barrage. Sindh, being the lower riparian, presses for 10MAF releases of water to protect the ecology of the Indus delta and downstream population. The barrage was built in 1955 and has 44 gates and 22-gates each fall in the Jamshoro and Hyderabad districts. On Aug 14, 1956, the barrage passed 981,000 cusec peak of floodwater. The second highest peak was 939,000 cusecs, during the super floods, on Aug 27, 2010.

Cotton and wheat remain the major crops in Jamshoro with both maintaining their acreage, respectively covering 3.18pc and 2.38pc of Sindh’s total acreage. Onion is largely cultivated here, accounting for 18.52pc of total Sindh’s crop acreage. Jamshoro also produces tobacco though on a marginal scale

The barrage has a gross command area of 3.21 million acres fed through four canals. Of this, 2.92m acres are culturable command area. Two canals on each side of the barrage are managed by the Sindh Irrigation and Drainage Authority (Sida) and the irrigation department. The Kalri-Baghar (KB) feeder, the only right bank canal, with a designed discharge of 9,100 cusecs mainly feeds the coastal districts of Thatta and Keenjhar lake. The 72-miles long KB feeder is under the irrigation department’s control. Besides the KB feeder, the 56-miles long left bank old Phuleli or Pinyari canal with 13,800 cusecs is with the irrigation department.

Two more left bank canals, including the 65.60-miles long Akam Wah (known as the lined channel) with a designed discharge of 4,100 cusecs and the 81.33-miles long New Phuleli canal with a designed discharge of 14,350 cusecs, are regulated by the Left Bank Canals (LBC) Area Water Board (AWB) of Sida. The AWB recovers water charges from users. Against the target of Rs40.20m in 2019-20, Rs13.62m (33pc of the target) was recovered by LBC AWB.

The KB feeder is a vital source of drinking water supply for Karachi. The city gets water, in addition to the Hub dam, through Keenjhar lake which is fed by the KB feeder. Three left bank canals ensure drinking water supply to Hyderabad, Badin, Thatta and Tando Mohammad Khan. The barrage provides water to Kotri, Nooriabad and Hyderabad Sites.

Cotton and wheat remain the major crops in Jamshoro. Based on the last three years’ average, both crops have been maintaining their acreage, respectively covering 3.18pc and 2.38pc of Sindh’s total acreage in 2015-16, 2016-17 and 2017-18. Onion is largely cultivated here and the average three years stats show that its acreage claims 18.52pc of total Sindh’s crop acreage. Jamshoro also produces tobacco though on a marginal scale. The three years average figures put tobacco’s area at 3.28pc of Sindh’s total acreage.

The small farmers depend on hill torrents for Kharif crops in many areas. When the hill torrents flow into the vast hilly landscape, farmers use them to grow summer crops under spate irrigation. An old study of Nespak said 1.4m acres could be brought under cultivation through spate irrigation in Sindh. Farmers raise embankments around fields to store flows of torrents that moisturise the soil and cultivate lentils and beans. Water is stored on a field-to-field basis that flows through small ‘nais’ (streams). Then the water is released to adjacent land as spate irrigation practice.

The area also has 708,700 sheep and goats (1.59pc of total Sindh’s population) as per the 2018 projected livestock population. It has 388,426 large animals, which account for 2.90pc of Sindh’s population.

Jamshoro has the 18th-century majestic Ranikot fort — a marvel of Jamshoro — located in Lakki range in Kirthar mountains. The fort is said to be one of the largest ones in the world. Its wall is said to be manmade and 7,794 metres long. Other famous tourist spots are the freshwater Manchhar late and Kirthar National Park, which is Pakistan’s second-largest after Hingol National Park. But rehabilitation eludes the lake which has been destroyed in the last couple of decades.

Kirthar National Park has rich flora and fauna. Its non-protected area is a game reserve for trophies sanctioned under the Sindh Wildlife Department’s (SWD) tutelage for locals and foreign hunters. Foreigners are allowed to hunt urials and Sindh ibex while local hunters can hunt the Sindh ibex alone. The revenue earned through trophy hunting is shared on 80-20pc basis with the community keeping 80pc and 20pc going to the provincial kitty.

Jamshoro district administration’s official profile of the area connects the ruins of Sehwan Fort around the shrine of Qalandar Lal Shahbaz symbolically with memories of Alexander the Great. It said that a day before reaching Sehwan, Charles Napier wrote in his diary, “tomorrow, I am going to stand where Alexander did. I am going to be saluted as he was. I wish I knew the exact spot”. It said Sehwan, then known as Siwistan, was described by Ibn Battuta as a part of the Delhi Sultanate. The district also has the shrine of Lakki Shah Saddar.

The political landscape of Jamshoro is under the strong influence of the Syeds and sardari system, mainly dominated by the redoubtable Malik Asad Sikandar. Jamshoro is also home to the sitting chief minister, Syed Murad Ali Shah. The constituency of his late father and then chief minister Syed Abdullah Shah used to be part of Dadu but after carving out Jamshoro from Dadu in 2004, this is now the third provincial constituency of Jamshoro held by the present chief minister.

Jamshoro is home to the exponent of independent Sindh, G M Syed, who hails from Sann, located 90km north of Hyderabad of Indus Highway. Malik Asad commands respect in and controls dozens of big and small tribes/communities besides business-oriented Hindus. Communities like Shoros, Burfats, Khoso etc are part of local politics. A substantial number of Hindu cotton ginning and rice mills owners in Sindh are from Thana Bula Khan of Jamshoro.

Jamshoro faces chronic issues of rehabilitation of Manchhar lake and incompletion of the Right Bank Outfall Drain (RBOD-II). Destruction of the lake, home to a large fishing population until the recent past, is an unending saga so far. It continues to receive toxic effluent from RBOD-I/Main Nara Valley Drain (MNVD), contaminating the lake’s water and killing its indigenous fish species and grass. This pathetic situation led to the large scale migration of the fishing population from the lake to other parts of Sindh and Balochistan although it has immense tourism potential. RBOD-I is to be connected with RBOD-II through the Indus link (already completed) once RBOD-II is completed.

The 273km-long RBOD-II would bypass the lake to carry effluent to Gharo creek, Thatta and would rehabilitate it. The lake would then get flows from torrents and multiple springs during the monsoon. RBOD-II capacity was increased from 2,2721 cusecs to 3,500 cusecs after Balochistan’s component of effluent was added to it during the late Zafarullah Jamali regime. RBOD=II’s cost has been revised twice. It started in 2001 at Rs14 billion and now it is to be built at a cost of Rs62bn in 2017. Originally slated for completion in 2006, it has been delayed by 15 years. The drain has been hit by back-to-back cost escalations and became a sad story of corruption, culminating in a National Accountability Reference of Rs4.48bn in January.

Then there is the Darawat dam, built during the Asif Zardari-led PPP government. It has rain-fed storage in Jamshoro. Located 135km north-east of Karachi and 70km west of Hyderabad, it stores flows of torrent Nai Baran that passes through Jamshoro. The dam has 121,600 acres feet storage capacity. Its command area, however, is located in Thatta and was not developed for irrigating 25,000 acres of land to be distributed among landless farmers. Of this, 625 acres were distributed but possession was not handed over to farmers.

A lined canal with four distributaries has been built by Water & Power Development Authority, according to the then dam’s project director Iqbal Sheikh. The dam’s cost was twice revised due to cost overruns with the second revision finalised at Rs11.67bn by the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council.

And last but not least, Jamshoro is witnessing expanding tentacles of Bahria Town Karachi which has acquired 2,200 acres of land in Deh Mole of Jamshoro through private purchases. The Defence Housing Authority, another mega housing scheme, did not lag behind. It covers 731 acres of land in Jamshoro off M-9 Motorway.

Having said this, it would probably be relevant to mention that in terms of intensity of poverty, Jamshoro’s rate is 0.59, second highest after Mirpurkhas as per the “Clustered Deprivation: District Profile of Poverty in Pakistan” report authored by Arif Naveed and Nazim Ali and published by the Sustainable Policy Development Institute in Sept 2012. The study ranks Jamshoro among extreme poor district in terms of incidence of poverty.

Published in Dawn, The Business and Finance Weekly, , March 8th, 2021