ISLAMABAD: Sindh Agriculture Minister Muhammad Ismail Rahu said on Friday that crops in the province had been damaged due to the shortage of water and demanded a judicial inquiry into the reduced supply of water to Sindh.

Speaking at a news conference at Sindh House, Islamabad, Mr Rahu said that Prime Minister Imran Khan remained silent over the great injustice being done to the province.

“Sindh demands that a judicial inquiry be conducted for reduced release of water to the province. The federal government is responsible for the reduced supply of water to Sindh,” he said.

The province had been raising a voice against reduced supply of water for the past two months and now the Indus River System Authority and Water and Power Development Authority were accepting our position, he said.

He said that the judicial probe would fix the responsibility of the institutions and the officials. “Sindh has lost its share of water costing trillions of rupees,” he said.

Minister Rahu accuses centre of releasing ‘manipulated’ figures of agricultural production

He said Irsa had blamed Wapda for the reduced supply of water to Sindh, but how it was possible that Wapda released water according to its own desire. “Irsa has not only admitted the water scarcity in Sindh but also committed a big blunder in the distribution of water,” Mr Rahu said.

The provincial agriculture minister said that the share of water for Sindh was not even being released at the start of the Kharif season. He said the share of Sindh’s water had been forcefully stopped but Wapda and Irsa were claiming that the surplus water was being released to Sindh.

He said that 5,000 cusecs of water should be released through Kotri Barrage, but there was no authority which could question Irsa over this injustice.

Dates, chillies production suffer

Minister Rahu stated that the production of dates and chillies in the province had been devastated due to lack of water and the federal government had taken no action on this loss to farmers.

The cultivation of rice is below the target, and according to estimates, rice has been cultivated on 86,000 hectares of land against 400,000 hectares, he said.

He said that the province earned maximum foreign exchange by exporting rice. Likewise, sowing of non-basmati rice was the highest in Sindh.

The provincial minister said that besides Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and south Punjab were also facing shortage of water. “Sindh has not stolen the share of water of Balochistan,” he said.

He said that all the provinces should be released water according to their requirements. “When we talk about the justified distribution of water, the federal government suggested other means instead of the agreed formula. For their own interest, the federal government made excuses of the Indus Water Treaty and other means.”

Mr Rahu claimed that the federal government released manipulated figures of agricultural production as it claimed the production of 700,000 bales of cotton whereas only 56,000 bales were produced.

He said that the federal government squashed the suggestion of Sindh to stop importing tomatoes, and when the tomatoes produced in Sindh hit the market, farmers could not get the price of even Rs5 per kilogram.

Published in Dawn, July 10th, 2021