January 14, 2007	Sunday	Zilhaj 23, 1427

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MUZAFFARGRAH, Jan 13: The common man is likely to suffer from the closure of the Muzaffargarh Canal as this will result in increase the price of vegetables and mangoes, growers and traders apprehend.

Vegetable and mango growers complain of the high cost of watering after the Irrigation department stopped water supply into the Muzaffargarh canal.

They say frequent power outages and high cost of diesel have increased their cultivation cost.

Malik Sibtain Ali, who owns mango orchards, said that in 2006 the mango price had gone up because of poor yield as a result of pest attacks. He said this year the price would again shoot up because of the costly watering. A mango plant needs to be watered every 15 days.

Wheat crop is being badly affected because of the non-availability of water. Farmers say if they use diesel engines or electricity motors to supply water, they will suffer losses. Government-run SCARP tube wells, according to them, are also ineffective because of up to seven hour loadshedding everyday. Hence one gets irrigation turn through SCARP tube wells on the 15th day.

Dawn learnt that if a tube well breaks down, farmers have to repair it on their own. In such circumstances, farmers have to use diesel machines that multiply their expenditures.

Malik Ijaz Hussain, a farmer, said he had spent Rs5,000 to irrigate his five acres. “The wheat crop needs to be watered four times. If I spend Rs4,000 to water one acre, it will leave me with no profit,” he said.

Azam, a wholesale dealer of vegetables, said the cultivation cost had also gone up because of the closure of the Muzaffargarh canal. He said the vegetable fields needed to be irrigated every week.

The Irrigation department has stopped supplying water into the canal because of the Taunsa Barrage Rehabilitation Project.

Farmers said the water share of the Muzaffargarh canal was being given to other districts. They demanded the government charge those who were using the share of Muzaffargarh canal and the money collected be given to the people affected by the closure.

Multan Electric Power Company’s complaint office in charge said loadshedding would continue because the company had not received any orders from the ministry to end it. He said when the government ordered them, they would end loadshedding.