MITHI: Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Sindh secretary Aajiz Dhamrah has warned of dire consequences if water is not provided to rice cultivation zones of the province and said the country may face a serious food crisis if farmers are not able to cultivate paddy in the absence of water.

Dhamrah told media persons here on Friday that functionaries of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf government had always tried to push Sindh to backwardness through their ill-conceived and anti-people policies.

He deplored that “incompetent” rulers had no plans to boost agriculture sector and provide relief to farming communities across the country. People of Sindh were ready to launch a massive protest movement against artificial water crisis being created by rulers. “Not only is the economy at stake but also livelihoods of many farmers across the province,” he said.

Dhamrah said that depriving Sindh of its due share in irrigation water was a cruel joke with people of the province and held chairman of Irsa and high-ups of federal government responsible for the “banditry” on the waters of Sindh at Taunsa link canal.

He said the agriculture sector had already suffered a lot due to self-centred policies of the rulers imposed on the country and water crisis in tail-end areas, which would further cause destruction for the farmers in a number of districts.

He warned of peoples’ backlash if Sindh was denied its due share in water as per the water accord.

He said that keeping in view climate change and its impact on crop pattern in Sindh, the government had already taken a number of initiatives to avoid misuse and wastage of water.

He said that currently all barrages of the province were facing worst water shortage due to which farmers as well as common people were forced to take to the streets to register protests after failing to get their due share in water.

He made it clear that despite record shortage in flows high-ups as well as officials were trying their best to ensure fair and judicious water distribution in canals across Sindh.

The minister said that the PPP leadership had always believed in freedom of press and said those who had failed to deliver were trying to muzzle it.

He said that those who were claiming to have bolstered national economy were just trying to hoodwink people and distract their attention away from price hike and worst governance.

He warned of dire consequences if water was not provided to rice cultivation zones of the province and added that entire Pakistan might face severe food crisis if farmers were not provided with water for the cultivation of paddy.

Dhamrah lashed out at some PTI lawmakers, who according to him, were issuing concocted statements while sitting in Islamabad and Karachi instead of asking high-ups of the federal government to ensure fair distribution of water across the country as per the indent.

He asked the PTI leaders from Sindh to read the writing on the wall and stop duping people just to please their “masters”, who according to him, had miserably failed to provide any relief to masses.

Published in Dawn, June 5th, 2021