Delayed repairs: Closure of Rohri canal affects drinking water supply, crops in lower Sindh

Irrigation officials promise supply from Jun 17, growers doubt

HYDERABAD: Continued closure of the Rohri canal, due to collapse of some portion of a fall regulator, continues to create irrigation and drinking water shortage in many districts of Sindh.

Around two dozen crops, including major ones such as cotton and sugarcane, are either being damaged or face  the risk of loss as the irrigation officials fail to meet the repair deadline.

Rohri canal flows from Sukkur Barrage and supplies drinking water and irrigates around 2.9 million acres in Khairpur, Naushero Feroz, Shaheed Benazirabad, Sanghar and Hyderabad districts. At the time of the damage, the canal was flowing at over 14,000 cusecs.

The regulator of Rohri Canal, located on Naushero-Phul link road, was damaged around 10 days ago. Given the urgency, the irrigation officials announced June 17 as the deadline for resuming water discharge after repairing the damage.

However, representatives of farmers' organisations, such as Sindh Abadgar Board and Sindh Abadgar Ittehad who have visited the project site, complained of slow pace and substandard material.

"They [the irrigation officials] will take at least 12 to 15 days [to complete the works]. But now our other concern is the poor quality of cement, bricks and iron bars being used in the construction," said advocate Ali Palh, who visited the site on Tuesday with the delegation of Sindh Abadgar Ittehad.



Briefing the delegation, Sindh Irrigation and Drainage Authority's managing director Babur Effendi assured, but to their utter disbelief, that the canal will be opened by June 17. "They are dodging us to fend off farmers from gearing up the protests," said Palh. Ittehad put the losses sustained so far at tens of billions of rupees.

A delegation of Sindh Abadgar Board, led by its president Abdul Majeed Nizamani, also visited the regulator on Sunday and expressed their dissatisfaction. "If the water supply is not restored in less than a week, we will block roads and highways in protest," warned Nizamani, requesting the Chief of Army Staff General Raheel Sharif to deploy the army's engineering corps to fast-track the repairs.



Sindh Chamber of Agriculture president Dr Syed Nadeem Qamar accused the irrigation department for its incapacity to notice weakness in the structure during its annual closure in January. Although the canal is closed every year for two to three weeks for de-silting, this year the closure lasted for 44 days from January 5 to February 17, creating severe irrigation water shortage.

Dr Qamar demanded that the negligent officers should be taken to the task because they have caused hundreds of billions loss to agricultural economy this year alone.

The three farmers' organisations have also called for investigation into the damages as the local people kept informing the irrigation officials about cracks in the flank walls and regulator for two years.

For his part, irrigation secretary Zaheer Hyder Shah, who visited the site on Monday, told the local media that an inquiry into the matter will be notified in a few days.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 15^th, 2016.