Daily Times

KARACHI: A landowner widow from district Sanghar announced that she would single-handedly launch a long march on July 1 from Sanghar to Karachi against the non-supply of agriculture water.

Shabiran Jamali, 37, is a small scale landowner with nine acres of agricultural land in Sanghar’s Union Council (UC) Khadwari. “My husband died last month before he was ill for last three years. To make the ends meet, I started livestock trading. But my miseries doubled when my agricultural water was stopped last year,” says Shabiran.

Shabiran says that she and other small scale landowners had not received water for their lands since a year now. “Concerned Irrigation Department officials are favoring one landowner over another on the basis of personal connections and favoritism. I am not receiving any water for my lands because I am not well-connected,” Shabiran Jamali.

According to Shabiran, she has registered complaints to high-ups but nothing happened. “I sent applications to then Sindh Chief Minister (CM) Syed Murad Ali Shah, Sindh Governor, Sindh Chief Secretary, district administration and local representatives. I also gave application to court of law and NAB (National Accountability Bureau) but no action was taken to solve the issue,” she says.

Shabiran will be starting her long march from Sanghar on Sunday morning. “I am tired of this situation. That is why I am taking this extreme step as I have no other choice. I hope that other landowners from the area will support me. Even if they don’t, I will not take step back,” she says.

According to Shabiran, some political circles are calling her call of long-march a ‘political stunt’ but she denied any political involvement behind the scene.

“My demand is that I should be provided agriculture water. If my demands were not met, I would ablaze myself upon reaching Karachi,” she added.

Sindh Irrigation Department links the shortages with country’s overall reduction. According to Badaruddin Memon, the area’s sub divisional officer, there is fair distribution of water in the region. “When I took over the charge two months back, there was shortage in water supply from River Indus system but situation has improved in last two weeks. Whatever I get, I distribute equally to all,” he maintains.

However, Shabiran rules out Memon’s version. She alleges that the Irrigation Department is supplying water to upstream landowners despite the water shortage.

Malik Sajid, another area landlord in UC Khadwari is also of the view that the scarcity is caused by unfair water distribution. “Around twenty-five farmers having 1,500 acres of area land are being denied agricultural water in our area for last one year. Irrigation Department officials give excuses but fact of the matter is that they are a part of the problem,” he claims.

“We heard that caretaker Chief Minister Sindh has decided to deploy Rangers at different canals, distributaries and channels to stop water theft so that water can be provided to tail-end areas. If it starts, it can be good for us tail-enders,” Malik says.

Sanghar is the leading cotton producing district in the country. Nara Canal is the major source of water to the district. According to growers, the crop will suffer this year due to the water shortages. In the past few weeks, farmers have been staging protests against the water scarcity.

Published in Daily Times, July 1^st 2018.