LARKANA, July 14: The Sindh Abadgar Board (SAB), Qambar-Shahdadkot has asked the Sindh government to waive off agriculture loans and water taxes in the wake in the large scale catastrophe caused to growers due to flood and rains in the area.

President SAB Ishaque Mughiri of Qambar-Shahdadkot district taliking to Dawn on Saturday said around two hundred thousand acres of land meant for paddy cultivation had totally been devastated.

Stagnant water had drastically damaged the lands’ fertility and was not receding he said and apprehended drought-like conditions if it stood on lands for longer period.

Farmers and growers had no alternate except to cultivate the paddy crop he said and regretted that still six big breaches caused in Dyke and the Safiullah Magsi branch were not yet plugged. The flood water was still flowing in the lands, he said.

He said following the flood tragedy, highly contaminated water from Balochistan had entered into Sindh from Shahdadkot.

Whatever the degree of fertility left in the flood-torn areas in agriculture land would now be washed away with this spell toxic water he feared.

Apart from affecting land it would create stomach diseases in the flood affected people braving odd hours in the camps and on roads.

The displaced people who had been drinking flood water would develop abdominal diseases in the population so far affected he said.—BoC