Farmers to bid adieu to SCARP project
Officials in Muzaffargarh have made a phase-wise plan to close down the tubewells.
It is feared that the closure of SCARP tubewells will not only affect farmers, but it will also add to salinity in the district.
An official of SCARP plan in Muzaffargarh, Muhammad Asharf told Dawn that the orders to close down the tubewells had been issued in 2002, but the local officials kept on running those tubewells that were in good condition. But now the irrigation secretary had directed us to close down even those tubewells which were functioning well and also being maintained by local farmers.
In 2002, the authorities concerned had ordered that if any tubewell went out of order, it should not be repaired. If any tubewell is functioning at a place where the water level is going down, then it should be closed.
At present, there are 695 SCARP tubewells in district, out of which only 100 are in working condition. Around 475 operators look after these tubewells.
The EDO (agriculture) said in 2002 when Governor Khalid Maqbool came to Muzaffargarh, the then district nazim, Malik Sultan Hinjra, had appealed him not to close down the SCARP tubewells. But the governor said there was no funding for these tubewells which were causing a loss to the department.
Malik Mureed Abbas, a progressive farmer, said a delegation of farmers met irrigation minister Amer Sultan Cheema in 2004 and demanded that the SCARP tubewells should not be closed. And he, too, said there were no funds to keep these tubewells running.
The farmers, however, assured him that they would look after the tubewells but he should direct the operators not to steal equipment. The operators, they said, stole machinery and sold it in the market at a reasonable rate. Despite the minister’s assurance that he would direct his officials to take action against the operators involved in theft, no action had been taken so far, the farmer said.
Mr Abbas said he, together with other local farmers, were maintaining SCARP tubewells of Beghwala for the last four years and had spent Rs200,000 on their maintenance. Since many farmers contributed towards it, it was not a burden on any one, he said.
Nasir Almani, Ghazi Ghat union council nazim, said although stores of SCARP were full of machinery, the officials did not give them any objects whenever they needed. He said on two occasions transformers had been stolen from SCARP tubewells in their area in Ghazi Ghat and every time they bought it from their own pocket.
He said the closure of these tubewells would be a setback for the farmers who were dependent on these tubewells for irrigation. He said the Muzaffargarh canal supplied water for six months and the recent Taunsa Barrage project had also delayed the water supply and the SCARP tubewells being run on a self-help basis were a great boon for farmers. He urged the government to withdraw the decision.
SCARP sub-engineer Abdul Samad said they would close down tubewells under Alipur phase, Rangpur phase and Kot Addu phase and the process would be completed within three months.
He said the government was also working on another plan to build new tubewells that would be handed over to the farmers.
Taking advantage of the situation, thieves have come into action and started stealing things from tubewells. The cable of transformer of Leghariwala tubewells was stolen in the past week. Now the farmers have made committees to guard the tubewells.
The government had launched the project in the 1960s and it involved the provision of tubewell linings in support of the Salinity Control and Reclamation Programme (SCARP) under which publicly-owned tubewells were constructed all over Pakistan. The aim of SCARP was to increase agricultural production by reducing soil salinity and providing irrigation water.
Since the establishment of Muzaffargarh Canal in 1962, up to 70,000 acres of the district have been made useless due to salinity and water-logging caused by the canal. These tubewells had greatly helped reduce the spread of salinity in the district.