HYDERABAD: Sindh Abadgar Board (SAB) has expressed fear that if required quantity of water is not released downstream Kotri Barrage then sea intrusion will even endanger areas as far up as Kotri and Hyderabad and stressed the need for putting in place a structure that can check further onslaught of the sea.

The board, which met here on Saturday with its president Abdul Majeed Nizamani in the chair, said that Sindh, being lower riparian, had first right on water but this principle had never been respected.

Mr Nizamani regretted that even available water flows were not judiciously distributed within Sindh and tail-end growers were deprived of their share in water. Sea intrusion was also caused by lack of freshwater flows, he said.

He said that Indus delta used to be very green and beautiful until 1950-1960 but the rich ecology started degrading when river flows were stopped and agriculture land on millions of acres got destroyed.

He feared that if the situation persisted the sea would endanger even the areas as far up as Kotri and Hyderabad. There was an urgent need for raising a structure that could keep the sea in check, he said.

He said that groundwater reserves in Sindh had dropped to just 2.5MAF as compared to Punjab’s 45MAF. Besides, the province experienced less precipitation — five to nine inches — as compared to Punjab where rainfall volume was recorded at 15 to 18 inches.

He said that summer conditions, especially during Kharif season, affected crops because of high velocity coastal winds that blew as far up as Sakrand in Sindh. Freshwater lakes like Manchhar, Keenjhar, Hamal, Nareri, Hadero had been destroyed but government was not paying any attention to their rehabilitation.

The meeting expressed concern over delay in completion of Right Bank Outfall Drain project, which had contributed solely to the destruction of Manchhar Lake by unending effluent discharge into the lake.

It called for completing RBOD at the earliest and said that Manchhar should be rehabilitated to its original shape and steps should be taken for the rehabilitation of other freshwater lakes as well.

The meeting was attended by Syed Nadeem Shah, Imran Bozdar, Aslam Marri, Yar Mohammad Leghari and others.

Published in Dawn, November 4th, 2018