KARACHI: The Sindh Assembly was informed on Tuesday that the province had faced 58 per cent shortage of water during the early Kharif season 2018.

Furnishing a statement and replying to the queries of lawmakers during the Question Hour session in the house, Irrigation Minister Syed Nasir Hussain Shah said that the Indus River System Authority (Irsa) in its meeting on March 29, 2018 had anticipated water shortage of 31pc during early Kharif from April 1 to June 10.

Later, he said, Irsa in its meeting held on May 15, 2018 revised the shortage estimate to 42pc. However, he added, the province actually faced 58pc shortage during early Kharif.

Replying to a question asked by Arif Mustafa Jatoi of the Grand Democratic Alliance (GDA), he said that the provincial government had formulated and implemented a contingency plan to cope with the situation and prioritise supply of water.

He said that top priority was given to provision for drinking water. The minister also said that the provincial government had taken Rangers’ help to control water theft and ensure supply to tail-end farmers.

Answering a question asked by Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf member Khurram Sher Zaman, the minister said that several crops including cotton and red chilli on 100,000 acres were adversely affected due to water shortage.

In reply to another question by Mr Jatoi, he said that the provincial government had taken up a plan for the lining of main canals, branch canals, distributaries and minors to reduce water losses and the allied issue of waterlogging and salinity.

He said that the provincial government had provided block allocations in budgetary grant. He said that Rs12 billion was allocated in 2016-17, Rs15bn in 2017-18 and Rs5bn in 2018-19.

Giving the details of the irrigation department’s achi­e­ve­ments in the lining of water channels financed through Annual Develop­ment Programme (ADP), the minister said that as many as 52 schemes had been completed. Besides, the minister said, 37 schemes were under execution.

When GDA lawmaker Nusrat Sehar Abbasi quoted the auditor general of Pakistan as saying that Rs50bn corruption was committed in the irrigation department, the minister replied: “The AG points out some irregularities but it doesn’t mean that the corruption took place.”

PTI’s Dr Imran Ali Shah insisted that the AG had pointed out “malpractices” and the same could not be termed just “irregularities”.

Nasir Shah asked the PTI member to go through the AG’s audit report for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and argued that the PTI government there had failed to answer where billions of rupees were spent.

“You have different criteria for Sindh government,” Mr Shah said, and offered the report on KP to the lawmaker.

Published in Dawn, May 1st, 2019