Government urged to provide fair share of water to Sindh

The government must provide fair share of water to Sindh because the available surface water is inadequate to meet the requirement of crops, unfortunately, the ground water is of poor quality, therefore, there is a dire need to use this precious resource wisely and efficiently by adopting appropriate scientific technologies.
This was stated by research scholar, Muhammad Hussain Shaikh, while delivering his final PhD seminar on the topic of 'Identifying Constraints towards Under-Performance of Controlled Irrigation system: A case study of downstream Kotri,' under the faculty of social sciences on Wednesday. Muhammad Hussain Shaikh, who is Registrar of the University and also first Officer in the history of the University, who completed the PhD research.
The seminar was presided over by Vice Chancellor Professor Dr Nazir A Mughal while deans of the faculties, senior faculty members, research scholars and students attended the seminar.
The scholar underscored the need to manage both the land and water resources on sustainable basis, but unfortunately, he said, irrigated water is not being managed efficiently as a result, Sindh is confronting shortage of water almost every year.
The crop cultivation and the production in lower Sindh is only possible through scientific irrigation system, as Lower Sindh irrigation supplies are mainly dependent upon controlled canal irrigation system of Indus River, Shaikh said. He added that although the amount of surface water availability is aimed at meeting the crop water requirements, however, water shortage in the lower Indus region tends to be growing over the years.
The scholar pointed out that ground-water is another major source of irrigation in lower Sindh region, which is being utilised for irrigation purposes. He further suggested that the government must manage water losses, through flouring of canals/watercourses particularly in saline areas of Sindh.
The scholar recommended that the government must keep close eye on the irrigated water because Indus delta is going through a process of degradation and its adverse effect, besides ecstatic increase in the sea level, is mainly attributed to the human intervention in the natural building process.
The scholar has also recommended that the government must provide micro loans to the land owners/farmers because they are not in a position to give proper fertiliser doses according to the requirements of the crop because of which the growers are not getting good output from their farms. It is also recommended that at present life downstream Kotri requires at least 10 million acres feet (MAF).
The scholar also suggested that the government must manage water resources in a scientific way because year after year the share of agriculture is reducing from the real GNP and in this regard the government should save water losses and improve watercourses.