LARKANA: The three-kilometre-long Saidu Minor (irrigation channel) passing through Naudero town has become a sewage drain due to disposal of effluent and waste generated in several localities for around 15 years.

Not only the water flowing in the tributary has been found unfit for human consumption and cultivation, but the effluent being disposed in the channel is contaminating subsoil water in the populated areas of the town.

Syed Sirajul Auliya Rashdi, the Larkana president of the Sindh Chamber of Agriculture (SCA) told PPI on Saturday that until 2005, Saidu Minor had been irrigating over 3,000 acres of agricultural land in the area. The irrigation department had strengthened its embankments using cement at the cost of around Rs30 million “but the work had been undertaken without proper planning”.

Off-taking from Dadu Canal, Saidu Minor carries water up to Bhatti village in Naudero.

Mr Rashdi recalled that water samples collected from a tube well in the area were recently tested by a Unicef team and the results showed that it was not even fit for cultivation. He described the results as “extremely alarming”, explaining that arsenic had penetrated deep below the ground level.

High court’s 2005 order to restore Saidu Minor yet to be complied with

Wahid Bux Jakhro, a grower of the area, told PPI that he had filed a constitutional petition in Sindh High Court’s Larkana circuit in 2005 on which the irrigation department was ordered to restore the channel within three months. However, he added, the court order was not complied with. Eventually, a contempt plea was filed and the irrigation engineers concerned were given one month to restore Saidu Minor.

Mr Jakhro said the department had done nothing as yet and as a result, farmers had been using the minor’s hazardous water to cultivate their lands for over 15 years.

Naudero’s Shehri Ittehad president Ghulam Hyder Narejo has also demanded restoration of Saidu Minor to its original state without any further loss of time. He said its water was posing a serious threat to the health of local population. He pointed out that the sewerage lines laid by the local municipality near an Imambargah would have to be shifted away from the irrigation channel’s course because it was disposing of sewage and effluent into the minor and grossly contaminating it water.

“The sewerage line carries sewage and waste water from several localities of the town and disposes of it into the minor which is turning the water extremely hazardous,” he said, adding that it was contaminating subsoil water as well.

He pointed out that hepatitis cases were on the rise in Bakrani and Ratodero towns due to the consumption of this arsenic and unhygienic water by people. If remedial measures were not taken now, Naudero could also witness spread of hepatitis and other waterborne diseases.

Commenting on the situation, irrigation department’s sub-divisional officer at Tajudero Syed Habib Shah said that Saidu Minor could be restored to its original state only when it was desilted and cleared of garbage, filth, weeds and bushes. About impediments in undertaking the process, he argued that both dykes of the minor had been massively encroached upon and this was making it impossible to carry out desilting and cleaning of the watercourse.

He said the apex court had already ordered removal of all encroachments existing on irrigation lands and a massive operation was under way. He said the third phase of the operation was scheduled to begin in May and upon its completion, the minor would hopefully be restored to its original state.

Published in Dawn, April 18th, 2021