HYDERABAD, Nov 3: The provincial secretary of Irrigation Shuja Ahmed Junejo on Saturday advised growers to make optimum use of water and be extra careful to avoid water losses and sowing high-delta crops.

The secretary told Dawn after addressing a growers’ meeting at the office of Sindh Abadgar Board (SAB) that all the four non-perennial canals would get water supply during Rabi season and even perennial canals would get reduced allocations of water. The meeting was chaired by SAB president, Abdul Majeed Nizamani.

Mr Junejo expressed the hope that differences on interpretation of certain clauses of Water Accord 1991 would be resolved soon but whenever Sindh faced shortage it would get its allocation as per historical use (1977-1982) formula instead of para-2 of the accord.

He urged the farmers to opt for optimum use of water and conservation methods so that they could make best use of available water, and admitted there were cases of water theft. The department had always taken action against water thieves, he said.

He said earlier at the meeting that since Irsa had predicted 22 per cent shortage as per initial assessment Sindh had made its withdrawal plan accordingly.

Sindh would now get 11.67MAF water as against current year’s 14.82MAF water allocation for Rabi season whereas the shortage last year had stood at 14 per cent and Sindh had utilised 13.76MAF, he said.

He urged the growers to opt for low delta crops given shortage and encouraged them to go for the products, which the country had to import from international market.

He said that wastage of water should be curbed at all costs as it was very high in Sindh as compared to other provinces. There was a dispute over interpretation of clause 14-D of Water Accord 1991 between Sindh and Irsa.

He said that enquiry into breach in Rohri Canal was under way and strongly opposed cultivation of rice in Rohri and Ghotki Canals’ command area.

Agriculture Secretary Muhakamuddin Qadri advised agriculturists to change crop patterns and be ready for sacrifices as far as water share was concerned. He termed the mealy bug as a disaster and urged revival of crops management committee and said that the federal government was contemplating on a programme to curb the bug.

SAB President Majeed Nizamani said that believed that the country was poised for a bumper of sugarcane expected at 1.4 billion maunds while Sindh might produce around 400 million maunds.