Farmers blame WAPDA for 22,000 cusecs water loss, theft

WAPDA officials have deliberately made the telemetry system installed at Besham dysfunctional, says SCA president

HYDERABAD: The Sindh Chamber of Agriculture (SCA) has claimed that 22,000 cusecs water, which is enough to irrigate over 43,000 acres of land per day, goes missing due to leakages and theft between Besham, a city in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KP), and the Tarbela Dam. The SCA, which lobbies for farmers' rights, on Sunday held the Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA) responsible for the loss and asked the federal government to take action against the relevant officials.

"The WAPDA officials have deliberately made the telemetry system [which records the quantum of water] installed at Besham dysfunctional," alleged SCA President Qabool Muhammad Khatian, who chaired a meeting of the chamber at its Hyderabad office. The office bearers and members of the SCA from Karachi, Sukkur, Sanghar and other districts attended through the video link.

"The defected system helps them cover the stealing of water," he said, adding that the officials involved in the theft should be fired from their jobs and, simultaneously, the government should also conduct an inquiry over their corruption.



The SCA also asked the Sindh government to raise the issue with the Centre. "The Thal Canal [in Punjab which is a flood-season fed canal] is getting 4,000 cusecs water whereas Sindh's Kotri barrage [which supplies water to 11 districts including Karachi division] is receiving 2,640 cusecs," he pointed out, deploring injustice in the water distribution in the country.

The SCA demanded that the water discharge at Sindh's Guddu Barrage be increased to 45,000 cusecs and in Nara Canal and Rohri Canal to 13,000 cusecs before the Kharif sowing starts from early March. The chamber also asked Sindh government to conduct a survey for assessing losses due to the acute water shortage during 2018 in six districts of Sindh and to waive taxes and dues of the affected farmers for three years.

According to the SCA, less than 50% of cultivable land was brought under cultivation last year owing to the shortage. The farmers also asked the provincial government to increase the official wheat procurement rate from Rs1,300 per 40 kilograms to Rs1,500 because the open market iwa paying around Rs1,400 to the wheat growers.

The SCA General Secretary Zahid Hussain Bhurgari, Kamal Khan Noonari, Ghulam Hussain Khan Chachar, Muhammad Khan Sarejo, Ghulam Mujtaba Unar and other office bearers and members of the chamber attended the meeting.