HYDERABAD: Growers belonging to the Sindh Abadgar Ittehad (SAI) visited the Phull fall regulator near Moro town of Naushahro Feroze district to see the ongoing repair work on Tuesday.

Hailing from Hyderabad and several other parts of Sindh, the growers were led by Nawab Zubair Talpur and Mir Zafarullah Talpur.

Later, speaking to reporters, the SAI leaders expressed serious reservations over quality of the maintenance work being carried out by the irrigation department.

They said that only 20 per cent of work was so far done contrary to the irrigation secretary’s claim of 70 per cent of physical progress in the work.

They also apprehended that canal might not be opened in the next few days as being claimed.

According to Nawab Zubair, saline bricks are being used in the repair works.

“Only half a dozen labourers are seen working at the regulator and they are washing bricks that are retrieved from the damaged site,” he said.

More labourers should have been engaged along with machinery to complete the work quickly, he said. He apprehended that water might be available to Rohri canal’s command area only after Eidul Ftir.

He said it would seriously affect summer crops by that time. “Hardly 20 per cent of progress in work is achieved contrary to the irrigation secretary’s claim of 70 per cent completion of work,” said Mr Zubair from the site on phone.

He wondered how would the irrigation authorities open the canal in the next few days with this kind of progress.

Zafarullah Talpur said they were told that the irrigation authorities would release 3,000 cusecs of water in another canal that run parallel to Rohri canal and after bypassing the damaged section of canal, it would enter the main channel again for downstream flows.

“This 3,000 cusecs of flows will not reach tail-end sub division of Khairpur Gamboh in lower Sindh,” he said. He said the work could be expedited only if the army was tasked with it and it would lead to transparency and quality in works. He remained dissatisfied with the pace and quality of works especially when labourers were using saline bricks in works.

Rohri canal was closed on June 5 to start repair work on Phull regulator which was faced serious damages. The canal is lying closed at the peak of Kharif season when summer crops need irrigation water.

Ex-MNA, growers explain reasons behind water scarcity

THATTA: A group of Abadgars described damaged, choked and inoperative regulators as well as non-desilting, deweeding and excavation of irrigation channels of Mirpur Sakro division as major reasons behind inadequate supply of irrigation water and sufferings of paddy sowing growers during the ongoing Kharif season.

Led by former PPP MNA Dr Abdul Wahid Soomro, they were talking to reporters during a coordinative field visit here on Tuesday.

The former legislator disclosed that due to declining sustenance capacity of distributaries, irrigation field staff often called for least indents in the system, depriving a large number of Abadgars in the command area of Mirpur Sakro Branch of sowing their paddy crop.

The group leader said that out of the six iron gates of Jam Branch — an offshoot of K.B. Feeder — lower four gates were lying inoperative for a long time.

He claimed that despite showing huge amounts spent on the maintenance and streamlining of water distribution system by the irrigation authorities, it (system) remain­ed ineffective.

The similar situation prevailed at regulators RD-197, 133, 167 and others, they said.

They said the irrigation officials to get served their own vested interest had excavated Ghar Buharki Naali 6 to 7 feet down the actual bed level on the pretext of streamlining water flow downwards, but in fact they were reaping its fruit by hunting fish and shrimp which penetrated into the Ghar Buharki Naali during the routine gush of oceanic water.

Till the last one and half month, the authorities had released 20,000 to 25000 cusecs of water in Indus downstream Kotri, they said, asking that they (growers) could understand that instead of availability of such a huge quantum of water in the system, why the officials never bothered to strategize the justifiable distribution of water in the coastal irrigation division Mirpur Sakro.

They demanded proper cleansing of channel, proper management of regulators to ensure supply of adequate water to growers in the Sakro division.

Published in Dawn, June 15th, 2016