HYDERABAD: The Hyderabad circuit of the Sindh High Court on Wednesday ordered executive engineer of irrigation division Hala and assistant commissioner of Tando Adam to get five samples to be collected from different spots of Sui Kander water channel analysed by the Soil Salinity & Reclamation Research Institute (SSRRI) Tandojam within five days.

The division bench comprising Justices Zafar Ahmed Rajput and Amjad Ali Bohio directed that after obtaining the samples, the executive engineer and the AC “shall stop discharging of [stagnant] water (which is rainwater mixed with floodwater from a breach in Rohri Canal) into the said distributary [Sui Kander].

The cost for analysis, if any, will be borne by irrigation department and its report will be submitted within 15 days”.

The court ordered official concerned of the Hyderabad Electric Supply Company (Hesco) to disconnect power supply to pumps and asked the AC to remove machine mounted on a tractor, which was lifting the stagnant water and releasing it into the channel.

The bench passed the directives on a pro bono publico petition filed by Ghulam Sarwar Qureshi advocate.

The court went through the reports submitted by the AC, assistant executive engineer Tando Adam-II sub-division and executive engineer submitted in compliance of the court’s Sept 24 order.

As per irrigation officials’ report, the executive engineer directed assistant executive engineer that if any person or employee tried to reopen the closed pipe, an FIR be lodged against them.

The official said that he visited the second site mentioned by the petitioner at RD-43 of Sui Kander distributary and found stagnant water was being drained into the channel.

The report claimed that the stagnant water which was being mixed with freshwater of the canal was not harmful for land.

It was necessary to mention that during the visit of officials neither wastewater nor poisonous water of factories was found in Sui Kander channel and only stagnant water, which was a mix of rainwater and floodwater from a breach in Rohri Canal, it said.

The official said the petitioner was not a landowner and did not produce any revenue record of agricultural land along this channel.

The court read out water testing report of SSRRI Tandojam dated Jan 1 pertaining to the samples.

Out of eight, four were found “unfit for irrigation purpose” and the rest were found “second class quality for irrigation purpose”.

Hence “this report cannot be overlooked,” observed the court.

The AC stated in answer to a question by the court that the samples were sent to Tandojam by the petitioner himself and he had no knowledge of it.

In order to know the real position, said the court’s order, the executive engineer and AC of Tando Adam were directed to get five samples of water from different spots in the Sui Kander channel analysed again by the SSRRI and asked Hesco official to disconnect power supply to pumps.

The petitioner submitted that respondent irrigation department was dumping wastewater into the freshwater channel, which supplied water to large population of the area.

He requested the court to declare official respondents’ discharging wastewater into the canal as illegal and restrain them from continuing the activity.

The court should also order police to register an FIR on behalf of state against all the persons responsible for disposal of wastewater into a freshwater channel, he said.

Published in Dawn, October 3rd, 2024