CHOLISTAN, May 14: The entire animal population of the Cholistan desert has migrated during the last three-year drought after suffering a mortality rate of five to seven per cent.

Cholistan Development Authority vice-chairman Abdur Razza told a team of visiting journalists from Lahore that herdsmen drove their animals back every winter but only to be forced out next summer by the persisting drought.

According to him, it was not easy to calculate the cost of the three-year drought as far as livestock was concerned, but it certainly was a mighty blow.

Of late, the federal government has allocated Rs 300 million under the Drought Emergency Relief Authority (Dera) programme and the money has started trickling in. But, it will take some time to feel the impact of the relief effort. Under the programme, the authority will build pipeline to take water right into heart of Cholistan. The magnitude of problem could only be felt when taken in human context. Even after 54 years of creation of the country, Pakistan has not been able to provide drinking water to a mere 1,4000 people of Cholistan area.

It, he said, was criminal to link these supplies to flood water availability or diverting it for other purposes. Now the president has allocated 250 cusecs of water for the area on perennial basis. It was against 600 cusecs demanded for the same, but it will largely mitigate drinking crisis of the desert, he hoped. For long-term plans, he told reporters that a huge network of roads, schools, ponds had been conceived and would be executed at a cost of Rs 440 million. The federal government has committed Rs 340 million and the province would contribute rest.

DAM: The district governments and the irrigation officials from the southern Punjab plead for immediate construction of the Kalabagh Dam.

Talking to visiting journalists, Tariq Bashir Cheema, District Nazim, Bahawalpur, Usman Akram, Chief Engineer, Irrigation, Mian Ghaffar, Chief Engineer, Irrigation Multan zone and Shah Mehmood Qureshi, District Nazim, Multan, issued a passionate appeal for the dam. However, Mr Qureshi was diplomatic enough to plead for a new storage without naming it.

The southern Punjab, they said, was situated at the tail of the Punjab irrigation system and was the main sufferer of prevailing water shortage. “Hot weather, sandy area and ongoing drought have further increased the intensity of the problem. Fair distribution of water resources is the core issue and it must be done now,” they said adding the stance of Punjab province on water issue was correct and objections raised by a brother province were not correct on technical and legal grounds.

Keeping in view the effects of water shortage in the area, it would not be possible for the Punjab to sacrifice its share in future, they maintained. In addition to building the dam, an awareness, campaign be launched among the farmers of the Sindh and Punjab for ensuring better and justified use of irrigation water according to the recommendations of the agricultural scientists.

The Punjab has always scarified for others; Water Accord was one example of the same and yearly sacrifice of water for Sindhi brethren was another. The southern belt produces around 85 per cent of cotton, which brings 70 per cent of foreign exchange for the country. The government, they said, could delay new dam only at the risk of that precious foreign earning, human and animal lives in the areas.