LARKANA: Recently planted paddy seedlings and other crops on hundreds of acres are drying up in Qambar-Shahdadkot district due to acute but mostly artificial water scarcity, which has been caused by gross mismanagement of water distribution by irrigation department and widespread political interference in the process.

As one travels from Larkana via Qambar bypass to Shahdadkot, one can see dry beds of irrigation channels and tributaries. Growers do send complaints about the situation to the quarters concerned and when they go unheeded they have to resort to protests in Qubo Saeed Khan, Shahdadkot, Sujawal, Behram, Qambar, Warah, Naseerabad and other areas in the rice belt of the district.

Local leaders of Sindh Abadgar Board (SAB) said that irrigation department had completely failed to ensure just distribution of available water.

Ishaque Mugheri, former president of SAB’s Qambar-Shahdadkot chapter, said that officials concerned were not discharging their duties sincerely and honestly. Paddy nurseries and recently planted seedlings were drying up but growers’ cries landed on deaf ears, he said.

The rice-sowing season was fast coming to an end, leaving growers with the only option to go for hybrid seeds as indigenous varieties had almost vanished from the market by this time, said a grower.

The water distribution process had been messed up by political interference and mismanagement, said a grower in Chkayani village near Ratodero-Khuzdar motorway.

Mugheri said that only political clout got things done and landlords, waderas and politicians used it to receive water at the cost of small growers.

He said that overall water shortage coupled with an unjust and defective distribution system and water theft through unauthorised siphons inserted in Khirthar and Saifullah Magsi branch, Warah and other channels and offshoots had aggravated the situation.

Dr Abdul Wahab Wadho, former district health officer of Larkana who cultivates his farmland in Chakyani village and Sujawal, said that this time water shortage would do harm to growers.

Both the late arrival of water and its acute shortage had left no option for growers but to cultivate only portions of the prepared land in close proximity to watercourses, he said.

This correspondent saw a water channel passing closely by the village flowing with very little amount of water that hardly touched mouths of modules. “We can barely transplant paddy crop on one fourth of the land we own,” he said.

“Prices of farm inputs have also registered a sharp rise while majority of landlords and small growers have obtained bank loans to cultivate their land,” he said.

He expressed worry about law and order conditions, which might break down in the wake of increase in poverty caused by losses to farm sector.

The conditions further worsened when Sindh government and Irsa locked horns over distribution of water.

Another move by irrigation officials, who had laid an outlet to Warah branch from Rice Canal that had previously been taking water from North Western Canal (NWC), had also cast bad impact on water availability in the area, said Abdul Khaliq Khoso, president of SAB Qambar-Shahdadkot.

It had drastically affected flows in Saifullah Magsi branch, which originated from NWC, he said. The Rice Canal was already silted up and could no more bear maximum current, which in turn was affecting the rice belt, he said.

Khoso, who is often involved in negotiating with irrigation officials while leading sit-ins and protests over water shortage in Saifullah Magsi branch, Khirthar branch and SKT branch, complained that the government had completely failed to address nagging water scarcity in the area.

In an effort to end water theft, former deputy commissioner of Qambar-Shahdadkot had formed a team with representatives of revenue department, police and growers to spot illegal pipes, outlets and siphons inserted in Saifullah Magsi branch, Khirthar and other irrigation offshoots, he said.

The team had pointed out during a visit on July 13, 2021 around 27 siphons, crosses, illegal pipes and outlets in Saifullah Magsi branch alone passing through Qubo Saeed Khan taluka, he said.

Showing a document carrying signatures of representatives of SAB, muhktiarkar of Qubo Saeed Khan and assistant executive engineer of Saifullah Magsi branch, he said that all signatories had verified that 27 outlets, pipes or siphons were illegally inserted and constructed in and along the said portion of the branch.

The report was submitted to the deputy commissioner but unfortunately it did not follow any satisfactory action, he regretted. Hardly 30 per cent rice belt in Qambar-Shahdadkot district had been brought under cultivation so far, he said and foresaw unrest brewing up among the population dependent on agriculture for their livelihood.

He feared migration, a general breakdown of law and order and multiplication of waterborne diseases in the days to come. Already, the underground water in the entire district had become highly brackish and health statistics showed a spike in hepatitis cases, he said.

Of 125 rice mills in the district 110 were operational and when production was low and chances of employment were few and far between what would become of graph of economic growth, he questioned. Definitely it would have serious implications for law and order conditions.

Growers and all other people linked with farm sector in the area demanded the government take urgent measures to resolve the issue of water shortage and purge existing irrigation system of all ills to establish writ of the government. This would in turn lead to boost in local economy, they said, adding that genuine demands of growers should not be thrown on the backburner.

Published in Dawn, August 29th, 2021