Sindh government has woken up to the issue of 40 percent water shortage in the province and requested the federal government to look into the matter in the light of the 1991 water accord.
The water shortage is expected to aggravate until there are enough monsoon rains to come to the rescue of this water-stressed province. Apart from revoking the 1991 water accord and appealing to the time-friendly federal and Punjab governments to release enough water to Sindh, the PPP lead Sindh government must look at other main underlined causes of the ever-deteriorating irrigation water situation in the province.
No doubt, climate change, and Indian and upstream Punjab factors might have some bearing on the overall decrease in volume of the water in Sindh. Sindh Province has a fair share in the declining quantity and quality of the water.
Water theft by upstream big landlords has rendered the vast land areas of small farmers barren. Over the decades these influential have taken (legally and illegally) exclusive water courses to irrigate thousands of their acres and reap bumper crops in a year. Hundreds of thousands of lift machines also lift water from canals illegally.
Secondly, mismanagement and wastage of water have contributed immensely to ever declining water volume, the village and hunting areas have increased in the bed of the Indus. The water canals have high quaintly of silt, wild plants and weeds, hindering the flow of little released water. unchecked deforestation is increasing exponentially contributing to less rain, land erosion and aggravating heat waves. Weak embankments of canals and water courses develop breaches and precious water is lost on the one and standing crops and human dwellings get inundated on the other hand at the time when the tail end area is suffering from an acute shortage of water.
Thirdly, the population explosion spurring the uncontrolled expansion of towns and cities like wildfire is another reason resulting in the high demand for water for drinking.
Although the above-mentioned issues are not confined to Sindh only, other provinces have some checks and the provincial governments there are taking redressing measures to resolve these issues. However, in the case of the Sindh government, no government agency or department is in action and things are left to deteriorate and decay. The Sindh government must look inwards and check above-cited issue which falls under its control sooner the better
GULSHER PANHWER
JOHI
