Water shortage hits crops in Sindh
The Dawn, By Shamim Shamsi
11/29/2002

SUKKUR, Nov 28: Contrary to the claims of the officials of the irrigation department, including its secretary, the water shortage at the Guddu and the Sukkur barrages ranged between 38 and 40 per cent on Nov 28.

The officials of the irrigation department had said that the water shortage would be contained at 26 to 28 per cent in the first week of November.

The discharge at Sukkur Barrage was 32,572 cusecs and 30,926 cusecs at the Guddu Barrage on Thursday.

The water flow had increased by just 3,000 cusecs in 10 days at both the Guddu and Sukkur barrages while it was expect to increase by 1,500 cusecs during the next week.

The officials of the irrigation department have decided to enforce rotation in the last week of Nov and the first 15 days of December in view of the persistent water shortage. No signs of improvement appear on the horizon.

According to the new rotation schedule, the offtake canals originating from the Sukkur Barrage would receive between 20,000 and 22,000 cusecs, while the canals originating from the Guddu barrage would get between 5,000 cusecs and 6,500 cusecs.

Adequate supply of water is needed during the ongoing wheat and sugarcane season while the orchards also need proper water supply.

Presumably, the total cultivated area in upper Sindh may go down as much as 60 per cent of the target during the Rabi season and the lower Sindh cultivated area may shrink to just 50 per cent.

These estimates are based on the figures for water shortage - which has already declined 30 per cent to 40 per cent below the required water discharge levels - during November and water rotation during December.

It has been reliably learnt that the wheat production target for the current year had already been revised downwards and ostensibly, officials of the irrigation and the agriculture departments would soon inform the Sindh government about the impending water shortage.

The situation may aggravate so far as the price and supply situation for wheat, flour and sugar is concerned in the urban areas.

It is feared that wheat may become dearer by at least 25 per cent while the rates of sugar may rise by as much as 10 to 15 per cent by comparison with the rates a year ago.

These officials have been telling growers of acute shortage of water and had also been advising them to bring lesser areas under cultivation.

According to the officials, this difficult decision was taken in view of the shortage of water suffered during Jan 2002, when the river flow had decreased to 36 to 40 per cent below the required levels, and for a certain period soon after the gap in water demand/supply had widened to 52 per cent.

Floods period occur in August, September and July every year but there was almost no flood this year, and the figures for water flow barely touched 196,000 cusecs.

Water rotation, because of the acute shortage, had affected the sowing of the water-intensive rice crop and may also affect the cotton crop, which had been substituted for the abandoned rice crop this year.

The water situation had remained bad in September October when wheat and sugarcane seedlings sprout and badly needed a second watering.

Paddy sowing has been banned on the left bank of River Indus and the growers are being persuaded to cultivate wheat and sugarcane as substitutes for the paddy crop.

These growers would be hit hard if the crop area and yields go down if the cultivated area goes down by as much as 50 per cent to 60 per cent of the total cultivable area.

Desert areas along the left bank of the Indus, comprising Ghotki, Sukkur, Khairpur and Sanghar districts, have a total arable land amounting to 3 million acres. Of the total, an area between 1 million and 1.2 million acres is likely to be cultivated and this, too, would be largely affected by the water shortage.

Figures gathered by the NGOs and the agriculture department stated that no crop had been sown over 60 to 65 per cent of these areas, which had resulted in their being declared drought-hit areas.

These areas are still bone dry and barren and the people are shifting their homes.

The draught had affected 60 per cent area of the Nara Taluka and the Sanghar district.

The situation becomes critical when one imagines that 50 per cent of the total cultivable area of Sindh is rendered barren by water shortage. This may cause the official recoveries to be deferred for at least a year.

The government has already postponed the recoveries on crops sown for the Rabi season while during the Kharif season the cotton seeds was specially affected by the water shortage in Khairpur and had resulted in stunted growth and reduction of its weight as well as yield.

The per acre production of the crop dwindled by as much as 20 to 25 per cent below the average while hitting 28 per cent to 31 per cent below the average in some areas.

The effects of degradation in the paddy crop output was offset by a higher price this year. The growers are getting 35 per cent to 40 per cent more than the price they got last year. So the paddy growers have been saved from suffering losses. However, the cotton growers have suffered badly as there are two different pricing criteria: One for standard cotton and the other for sub-standard and contaminated cotton.

At some places in Sanghar and Khairpur the growers were not even able to recover their investments on these crops.

Sindh has been facing water shortage during the past six months and this has already affected the Kharif crops. Now, the water scarcity may also threaten the Rabi crops.

The dwindling water supply may affect the fruit orchards and the vegetable fields.

The banana fields in the Khairpur district have already been affected by the shortage of water.

The banana growers are enjoying a higher price for their produce. The fruit's price jumped Rs12 to Rs15 per dozen higher than the price last year but the fruit's size, weight and yield was reduced because of the water shortage.

Other crops, sown in upper Sindh like chilies, tomatoes and mustard, was also partially damaged.

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