WHILE improved flows of water are reaching Kotri barrage, the woes of tail-end growers are unlikely to be addressed anytime soon.

The mismanagement in water distribution continues to deny the tail-end growers their due share of water. Their problem has aggravated owing to sanctioning of direct water outlets and improper de-silting.

The farmers arestill transplanting paddy crop from nurseries. “I can show you that in my area rice is being cultivated although it is otherwise prohibited. But as people are availing water through direct outlets they go for this cultivation comfortably,” says Mehmood Nawaz Shah, a grower of Tando Allahyar. He further says that it is not only unfair but it is being done at the cost of those growers who are supposed to be provided water from the main canal system.

A direct outlet (DO) is usually allowed by the chief minister through exercise of his discretionary powers. The DOs are sanctioned on the main canals.

On the basis of DOs, the crops that are not recommended for certain areas are now being cultivated. The cultivation of paddy or sugarcane in such banned areas on the one hand affects land’s fertility and on the other farmers are denied due share of irrigation water for their crops.

The land gets waterlogged and the land at tail-end areas cannot be cultivated.

No figures are available as to how many DOs have been given over the years though farmer bodies have demanded that DO record should be made public. In some cases, the growers move the court of law to question such sanctioning of DO. Only recently upper Sindh growers of Qambar-Shahdadkot district challenged such a DO.

“When these are strictly banned, we don’t know why DOs are sanctioned,” asks Shah. Certainly, he says, it is having a serious impact on overall agricultural productivity in the province. Same is the case with the de-silting of canals which is either not undertaken or done by growers themselves in a manner that has disturbed contours and gradients of minors and channels.

Irrigation officials do claim that de-silting is a regular phenomenon and it is done every year. According to Secretary Irrigation Sindh Babar Hussain Effendi, only recently north western canal on the right bank of Sukkur Barrage has been de-silted especially from RD-0 to RD-80 which otherwise was heavily choked on 37-mile long stretch.

He claims that it is not the entire tail-end region of the province which is hit by non-availability of water or de-silting. Only some portions of the tail-end area are affected where silt deposits take place.

The growers demand proper maintenance of gauges especially those at the tail-ends so as to easily verify whether the required flows were provided to the canal system.

Farmers complain that the performance of irrigation department over the years has been quite questionable. Sindh Chamber of Agriculture chief Nabi Bux Sathio claims that had de-silting been done properly, the problem of water shortage would have been controlled to a great extent.

“We can use sand — obtained during de-silting — for strengthening the inspection path and raising their height. But irrigation department only claims that it is carrying out de-silting but the situation on the ground remains different,” he argues.