LARKANA: Leaders of Sindh Abadgar Board have deplored that Sindh has been turned into a big “cesspit” into which the entire country’s industrial and domestic effluent is being released, but Sindh government is least concerned to address this serious issue.

SAB senior vice president Syed Mehmood Nawaz Shah said at a meeting of the board members in Shahdadkot on Saturday that the provincial government had neither taken concrete measures to resolve the issue nor raised it at an appropriate forum.

He deplored that lawmakers linked with agriculture sector seldom discussed serious issues of waterlogging, salinity and acute shortage of irrigation water in Sindh and asked them to tell public how many times they had raised the issue of severe shortage of water at the Council of Common Interests.

He said that it was highly unfortunate that there was no telemetry system to measure consumption of water hence “we do not have record of water distribution”. Agriculture sector suffered colossal losses during Covid-19 pandemic but federal government had extended financial assistance of Rs13 billion to industrial sector only and no lawmaker bothered to talk about farmers’ plight in seven districts of Sindh which had witnessed massive losses in Kharif and Rabi seasons, he said.

He said the issues afflicting farm sector in Sindh had been put on the back burner and forewarned about negative impact on upcoming paddy production owing to future climate change and expected late arrival of water in canals this year.

He said that paddy fetched around Rs1bn foreign exchange a year and it was need of the hour to formulate a strategy against sharp increase in prices of seeds, fertiliser, insecticides and other agriculture inputs. Being an apolitical organisation, SAB always raised farm sector’s issues and put forth proposals for the general good of growers, he said.

SAB office-bearers Zulfikar Yousfani and Aslam Nawaz Mari accused Balochistan of steering away Sindh’s water share at Garang regulator — a distribution point between Sindh and Balochistan — and shying away from supporting Sindh’s stance in centre.

They pointed out that excessive water was being taken from Ghotki feeder fed by Guddu Barrage and warned of acute shortage of water in the river in the days to come. It could drop to 40 per cent shortage, they cautioned.

They lamented that Sindh’s water share was being “stolen” by Punjab and Balochistan under the very nose of Sindh irrigation department’s representatives.

With timely increase in procurement rate of wheat, smuggling of the grain could have been avoided, they said, adding that Sindh and Punjab had locked horns over the wheat procurement rate with Sindh having fixed it at Rs2,000 per 40 kilogram.

The meeting demanded remodelling and desilting of North Western Canal System fed by Sukkur Barrage and removal of illegal pipes from the canal with the help of Rangers. It also called for early desilting of all distributaries, sub-distributaries, minors and sub-minors along with establishment of wheat procurement centres to buy wheat from growers at the rate of Rs2,000 per 40kg.

The meeting urged the department to ensure distribution of gunny bags to growers in a smooth manner at union council level in the presence of farmers of the area. All interest on outstanding agricultural loans should also be waived off, said the meeting.

Growers’ leaders Imran Bozdar, Imran Chachar, Ishaque Mugheri, Abid Jamali, Amir Bakhsh Pahore, Khalid Umar Khoso, Wahab Pandrani and Irfan Jatoi, who hailed from different districts, also spoke at the meeting and discussed a variety of issues confronting the farm sector.

Published in Dawn, March 7th, 2021