03 January 2004	Saturday	10 Ziqa'ad 1424

QUETTA, Jan 2: Growers are wasting underground water reservoirs by using obsolete methods of irrigation and cultivation of non-productive and non-profitable crops in Balochistan.

It was observed by the participants of a one-day consultative workshop jointly organized by the IUCN provincial chapter and the Environment Foundation Balochistan (EFP).

Additional chief secretary of planning and development Nadir Ali presided over the first session of the workshop. A majority of the participants and experts on water management, belonging to various NGOs and the departments concerned, suggested that the agricultural research institutions should introduce such crops that could give more produce using less water.

"The government, NGOs and other institutions concerned should come forward and evolve a joint strategy to prevent water wastage," Nadir Ali said while speaking on the occasion.

He said growers should adopt modern and scientific methods of cultivation and irrigation to save water, as long spell of drought had also hit the underground water resources.

Mohammad Ahmed Gondal, head of an environmental NGO informed the workshop about the depleting water table situation in the province, saying that the situation was very serious as the underground water level was reducing fast. If the departments concerned and other institution failed in saving water resources, Balochistan would face a very serious crisis.

The managing director of the Water and Sanitation Authority (WASA-Balochistan), Mr Hafiz, said the federal government had approved a Rs8 billion water supply project to resolve the water shortage problem of Quetta.

A young participant of the workshop, Sultan Ahmed, said that increasing installation of tube wells was another factor depleting the underground water table while the landlords of Mastung and other areas of the province were not adopting any method to help stop the wastage of water.