Rs 2.5 million spent on digging new water ponds in Cholistan

The Forest Department had spent a sum of Rs 2.5 million on digging 27 new ponds and de-silting another 13 in the Cholistan desert, Divisional Forest Officer Mian Fida Hussain told newsmen on Wednesday. Water ponds are the life-line for humans and animals of Cholistan desert, sprawling over 6.4 million acres in Bahawalpur division.
The official said that at the moment little water was left in big ponds, while small ponds had already gone dry due to lack of rains. Some 150,000 people of the Cholistan rear 1.6 million animals on average if ponds (toba) were full of water, he said.
"During dry spell the inhabitants of Rohi migrate to adjacent areas where they can get fodder for their cattleheads and goat herds. Drought compels them to leave Rohi temporarily every year". To a question, the DFO said three perennial irrigation canals pass from the northern side of Cholistan which were Bahawal, Haakra and Abbasia canals.
He said the Forest Department was planting 50,000 saplings on its own land in Cholistan, popularly called Rohi, and another 150,000 plants would be grown by private persons during the current year.
The DFO Cholistan said the Cholistan Development Authority was working on a number of water programs worth billions of rupees to set up turbines on the bank of canals for sweet water, the most prized commodity of the desert. This fit-for-drinking water is supplied to remote areas of the desert where there is human inhabitancy.
He said three such sweet water points had already been established, while work on two more points was underway. He clarified that this water was not meant for irrigation but only for drinking purpose.
Haji Fida Hussain said Rohi people sustained themselves and their families on the sale proceeds of their cattleheads, camels, goats and dairy products. "As the population is sparse and scattered in the Cholistan desert, education and health facilities are not adequate for the locals".
To a question, he said the underground water was brackish, due to which tubewells were of no use in the region, adding the local population had to depend only on rainwater ponds the year round, risking their health and lives.