DERA MURAD JAMALI: Nasirabad division is facing acute shortage of water in Pat Feeder, Khirtar and other canals as Sindh is not releasing water as per quota of Balochistan from the Indus River, badly affecting Kharif crops in the area.

The farmers of Nasirabad, Jaffarabad and Subatpur districts are unable to start the sowing of rice and other crops due to the shortage of water in the canals and their distributaries.

“We cannot prepare hundreds of thousands of acres of land for rice and other Kharif corps in the three districts due to unavailability of water,” Abdul Khaliq Khan Jamali, a leader of the Zamindar Association, told Dawn on Sunday.

He said that instead of releasing Balochistan’s quota of water in Pat Feeder, Khirtar and two other canals, the Sindh irrigation department was diverting it to canals in Sindh from the distribution system.

Farmers in Nasirabad division could not start sowing of rice, other crops due to shortage of water

Officials of the Balochis­tan irrigation department complained that Sindh was not cooperating with them in this regard. “Despite an increase in water discharge in Sukkur and Gudu barrages, the Sindh irrigation department is depriving Balochistan of its due water share in the Indus,” he regretted.

Balochistan canal system’s chief engineer Abdul Sattar Lakhti said that during the Kharif season the province’s water quota in Pat Feeder canal from Gudu Barrage was 6,700 cusec, but the Sindh irrigation authorities were releasing only 5,434 cusec. He said the same was the case with Khertar canal which was getting 1,675 cusec of water instead of 2,410 cusec from Sukkur Barrage.

Mr Lakhti recalled that it had been decided at a meeting of the Indus River System Authority (Irsa) — also attended by Sindh irrigation officials — that the water shortage in rivers would not affect supply to Balochistan. He regretted that despite the decision, the Sindh irrigation department was not releasing water in Balochistan’s canals from Sukkur and Gudu barrages, causing huge losses to the growers of Nasirabad division.

The Zamindar Asso­ciation asked the Balo­chistan government and Irsa to take notice of the situation and resolve the water crisis in Nasirabad division without further delay.

Published in Dawn, August 6th, 2018