During peak Kharif season, Guddu Barrage faces 71 percent shortage, Sukkur Barrage 31 percent and Kotri Barrage 64 percent shortage
Karachi
The National Reformers Forum has demanded the government to address the serious issue of current water shortage of about 50 percent facing critical crops of Kharif season in Sindh and save the agriculture in the province.
The current irrigation water shortage was discussed in detail in the NRF meeting held on Thursday at Karachi under the chairmanship of Rasool Bakhsh Baloch, President NRF. The Forum was informed that Guddu Barrage was facing 71 percent shortage, Sukkur Barrage 31 percent shortage and Kotri Barrage 64 percent shortage of water during the peak Kharif season.
The share of Sindh in water of Chashma Barrage is 117100 cusecs against which only 75000 cusecs is being provided to Sindh which is 36 percent less. Moreover, there are 20 to 22 percent line losses in water coming from Chashma Barrage. Out of 84000 cusecs released for Sindh and Balochistan, only 71440 cusecs reach at Guddu Barrage.
The water storage at Tarbela Dam is 4.26 lakh acre feet, but work on Tunnel 5 is in progress, as such water is not being released from there as well. Similarly water to the extent of 12 lakh acre feet has been stored in Mangla Dam, from which also water is not being released to Sindh.
Farmers’ community of Sindh is facing this grave situation, for which the Governments at Federal and Provincial level should take immediate action to save the current crops.
The issue of census was also discussed at length by the Forum which expressed its concern about the complicated procedure, capabilities of enumerators, and limited time allocated to complete the process. It was demanded that the census must be fool proof and transparent so that it is acceptable to all the stakeholders, failing which it will have far-reaching negative consequences for the country.
The NRF meeting was attended by Messrs. Syed Nadeem Shah, Muhammad Sharif Baloch, Ashfaque Ahmed Memon, Imtiaz Kazi, Rasool Bux Phulpoto, Aftab Ahmed Qureshi, Muhammad Ramzan Channa, Muhammad Ishaque Lashari, Brig ® Mukhtiar Ahmed and Shamsuddin Memon. (PR)
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