HYDERABAD: Sindh Abadgar Board President Syed Mahmood Nawaz Shah has written a letter to Indus River System Authority (Irsa) Chairman Sahibzada Mohammad Shabbir seeking his intervention to release water as per indent of Sindh.

He has stated that there has been an acute shortage of water due to the 15 to 21 days’ canals closure in a month in Sindh.

He said that his request was based on some facts. “Firstly, the total inflows at rim stations has increased to 128,500 cusecs. Inflows at Skardu, Besham and Kalabagh are increasing. Storage at Chashma has increased to 0.235 MAF. The total storage including that of dams is 1.050 MAF,” he explained.

Secondly, he added, Sindh was getting 35,000 cusecs against its indent of 50,000 cusecs whereas the share in water accord is 59,400. Due to this, there is a shortage of 48pc at Sukkur Barrage and 39pc at Kotri Barrage, besides 200 cusecs downstream Kotri.

Thirdly, he said, sowing of cotton should start in March and cotton growers are not able to plant cops. The growers who have already planted crops are faced with major losses as their newly planted crops were wilting due to unavailability of water.

Fourth, he said, very high temperatures are resulting in high evapotranspiration and, therefore, requirement of water is increasing. He observed that due to this phenomenon, the crops such as mangoes, sugar cane, vegetables etc are not able to survive with availability of water only after 15 to 21 days.

He said that fifth ground of his argument is that availability of ground water is very limited in Sindh, unlike other provinces, where there are abundant groundwater resources. He said the last point of fact is that Irsa chairman should consider that water released today from Chashma would take 10 to 15 days to get to system in Sindh and then water requirement would be much more than what it is today.

“It is expedient and critical to release water as per indent of Sindh forthwith. The understanding of Irsa will be appreciated by growers who are already facing challenges from climate change,” he said.

Published in Dawn, April 18th, 2025