Unintended consequences: Canal breach devastates crops, farmers’ stocks

Hundreds of acres of maize and fodder crops destroyed in two villages.

FAISALABAD:

Standing crops were destroyed over hundreds of acres of land after a breach occurred in the Bahlak Rajbah (canal) near Pindi Sheikh Musa village on Saturday night. An adjacent village, 343-GB, was also affected.

The water from the breach also destroyed the wheat, fodder and hay stores of the farming community and damaged the walls of more than a dozen of houses.

Residents said the breach occurred in a place where the canal bank had been weakened by cattle that the farmers brought to drink water and bathe in the canal.

“We had repeatedly alerted the Irrigation Department and asked them to take action against the farmers who brought their cattle to the canal but they did not do anything,” said Muhammad Ahmad, a resident of the area.

On receiving the information, District Coordination Officer (DCO) Noorul Amin Mengal and Rajab Ali Baloch, member of the National Assembly (MNA) from the area reached the site and supervised the efforts to plug the breach and strengthen the banks.

Talking to the journalists, the DCO said he had ordered an inquiry to ascertain the cause for the breach. “Action would be taken against any Irrigation Department officials found responsible as well as the farmers whose cattle weakened the canal bank.”

Farmers’ losses

Muhammad Hanif, a farmer whose crop of maize and fodder was affected, told The Express Tribune that water continued to gush out of the breached canal for over six hours. “No Irrigation Department functionaries came to our rescue,” Hanif said.

“The breach occurred at night so we had no chance to save even our wheat stock and hay,” Hanif said, with tears in his eyes.

Another grower, Waseem Ahmad, whose land was also affected, said “Not a single government functionary, from the police, revenue or any other department, came to help us until the DCO arrived.”

He said that efforts to plug the breach were launched six hours after the breach had occurred and some junior staff arrived on the scene “when we had lost almost all our wheat, hay, fodder and other stores to the water”.

Sohail Jameel, a tenant on a local landowner’s land, said he had put all his savings from his wages as a dairy farm worker into building a three-room katcha house that was destroyed by the water. “My family now has no shelter. We are penniless and I doubt if anyone will give us any compensation.”

Muhammad Aslam, the irrigation sub-divisional officer (SDO), said the breach occurred because of the erosion of the canal’s bank caused by the cattle.

“Under the Canal Act no one can bring cattle for bathing in the canal. Unfortunately, cattle owners violate this clear provision of the law with impunity.”

He said whenever they found the farmers bringing their cattle to the canal they took action. “As many as 34 persons had been challaned on account of bathing their animals in the canal,” Aslam said.

“The canal system is spread over 400 kilometers in my jurisdiction. Quite apart from the shortage of staff and resources, it is impossible to manually keep an eye in order to ensure that no one bathes their cattle in the canal,” the SDO added.

He said once a breach occurred, the Irrigation Department staff had to close the canal at the source, which took between 12 and 20 hours.

“It’s no fault of ours that the amount of water flowing out of the breach could not be reduced immediately. It takes time to plug a breach and we have no mechanism to drain the water out the affected land,” he added.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 16^th, 2014.