THATTA: Activists of various political parties, nationalist groups and civil society organisations on Friday intensified their protest against water crisis in Thatta and Makli on the 50th day of their drive. They held a four kilometer-march on foot and held a sit-in on the Thatta-Makli section of the highway.

The march was led by ‘Save Thatta Forum’ president Jamshed Qureshi, general secretary Dilawar Shaikh and other office-bearers including Abdul Ghaffar Khan, Comrade Hafiz Abbasi and Khalid Mumbai.

Speaking to the participants, the leaders said that residents of Thatta and Makli had been holding protests on a daily basis for the last 50 days to draw the attention of the authorities concerned towards the crisis but without any response as yet. They said they decided to intensify their drive and warned that several hundred residents of the two cities would proceed to Karachi and hold their protest in front of the Sindh Assembly if remedial measures were not taken within a week to address the issue.

Jamshed Qureshi told the media at the sit-in venue that over 200,000 souls of the Thatta and Makli had been facing a famine-like situation for weeks despite the fact that drinking and irrigation water was being supplied to certain areas on the outskirts of the two towns.

Protesters say water is available but being sold to affluent people

He said his forum had been holding demonstrations, rallies and sit-ins at different places on a daily basis but neither the elected representatives nor the administrations were paying any heed.

Dilawar Shaikh said that the ‘tanker mafia’ in connivance with some influential figures of the area and certain corrupt irrigation and municipal officials was involved in depriving the local population of its share in water.

“Two main tributaries have regularly been supplying Keenjhar Lake’s water to several towns, like Jungshahi, Gujjo, Gharo and Dhabeji, on the outskirts of Thatta but the city itself and Makli town were either getting meagre or no supplies for the last six-seven weeks,” he said. He alleged that local irrigation officials were actually selling water to owners of farm houses, lagoons, industries and fish farms as well as influential land owners.

He deplored that despite the continuing protests being organised by the forum, the authorities concerned did not make any arrangement for drinking water supply to Thatta and Makli population even on Eid days. He regretted that elected representatives of the district and towns were also not paying any heed to the affected families’ distress calls amid an aggravating famine-like situation.

Sadiq Ali Memon, the Special Assistant to the CM and ruling Pakistan Peoples Party’s Thatta president, acknowledged that the area was getting far less water supplies against its requirement.

He told Dawn that Thatta and Makli were getting supplies through the Udero Lal branch, Sakro branch and KB Feeder. “A crisis-like situation had started emerging after the public health engineering department transferred the water supply system to the local government institutions,” he said, adding that the latter’s performance in running the system in this area appeared poor.

He said that by improving the rotation system and gravitational force of water (by carrying out desilting of water channels) could help overcome the crisis.

Obhayo Khan Khushik — an eminent water expert and author of many books on Indus water — told Dawn that the situation was a ‘man-made crisis’ caused miserable failure of administration as well as the irrigation, revenue and local government departments.

He lamented that there was an army of officials and other employees regularly drawing their salaries but none of them were found discharging his duties diligently. The officials concerned, including those of the Thatta Municipal Committee and Makli Town could be found in their offices except for the days when salaries were disbursed and budgetary allocations were released.

He suggested proper repair and renovation of installations to ensure proper flows in the Jam branch,

Allah Khai Naali and Chach Lower tributary to overcome the crisis.

Published in Dawn, May 13th, 2023