NAUNDERO: Activists of Awami Workers Party and growers of Rice Canal held protest demonstration on Friday against acute water scarcity.
The protesters included Asar Imam, Roshan Kalhoro, Israr Noonari, Munir Kumbhar, Murtaza Korai, Saleh Ghangro, Mumtaz Sethar among others.
While talking to media, they said that according to Water Accord of 1991, 12,000 cusecs water is to be left in Rice Canal on May 5 annually but only 3,000 cusecs has so far been left which is flowing in the bottom.
They said that if this state of affairs continued then the growers at the tail end will never be able to sow their paddy saplings and production of Irri-6 rice will be ruined. It was added that paddy saplings sown on tube-wells are drying and burning slowly, therefore, it will become useless for sowing in the fertile lands.
They said that out of 88 water drains, 2,500 water courses and 19 regulators, Naundero Rice Canal Regulator is the only regulator where water is at the lowest level and the drains cannot be given their due share which has hit the growers hard.
The AWP activists alleged that Sindh’s agriculture is being destroyed systematically in a planned conspiracy which will not be tolerated. They said that on left bank of the Indus River, 50 percent water has been thrown in Rohri Canal, Nara Canal, East and West Canal and they are also facing 50 percent water shortage, while on Right Bank side, growers are facing 70 percent water shortage which is sheer negligence of irrigation department.
They further claimed that some private trading companies are anxious to introduce their new Hybrid rice seed which will ruin Irri-6 rice through which huge foreign exchange is earned by exporting this variety.
It was further stated that all the influential people are busy in elections and nobody is talking about water shortage and woes faced by the poverty-stricken farmers. They demanded justice be provided to the poor growers by giving them due water share so that rice could be sown and foreign exchange is earned.
It must be mentioned that if due irrigation water share is not given to the rice growing areas then it is feared that paddy saplings will not be timely sown in over 2.2 million acres of lands of six districts of rural Sindh which will economically destroy growers and peasants and the people will face hardships in future.