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Sindh to face water shortage for Rabi crops
KARACHI (February 18 2003) : The overall water shortage in Sindh seems to be exceeding the government projection of 29.4 percent and may reach 66 percent like last year.
Irsa has fixed Sindh's water share for Rabi, starting from December 21, 2002 to March 21 2003, at 9.888 MAF. Sindh utilised 5.685 MAF up to December 20, 2002 during which wheat was sown.
The remaining water for the Rabi season was 4.203 MAF. This shows an overall 29.4 percent shortage.
According to Sindh's share, the shortage is around 38.8 percent.
According to the Sindh irrigation department, two more water doses are required for the wheat crop till it is harvested.
Water was supposed to be released by January 24, 2003, but the canals closures continued.
It seems as if the water was not released in the canals, which has created a water shortage all over Sindh.
The Sindh irrigation department, according to its own schedule, should have released 1,300 cusecs at Guddu, 19,300 at Sukkur and 2,700 cusecs at Kotri barrages, but in the canals there is no water.
This shows that the overall shortage is around 66 percent as it was last year.
The growers are open sale of water. The Sindh Irrigation Department has deliberately not worked out a proper rotation schedule and has intentionally kept the water availability and its distribution a secret from the print-media.
The growers have a right to know when and what quantity of water would be provided to them.
A top officer in the irrigation department said, "Had the department circulated complete rotation system to its engineers, illegal retailing of water would have stopped".
Courtesy Business Recorder
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Pakissan.com; Advisory Point
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