Landowners of the coastal belt of lower Sindh have complained of shortage of irrigation water despite assurance from Irrigation Minister Nadir Akmal Leghari that enough water is available for tail enders, it was learnt on Tuesday.
Agriculturists from the coastal area of Badin and Thatta talking to Business Recorder said that the shortage of water was acute and its continuation would adversely affect crops and bring to starvation more than 50,000 people only in Badin.
They said that the minister had repeatedly talked about the excess water available due to low level flooding in Indus but this excess water was yet to reach farmers. They said that cleaning of canals has also not been taken up in remote areas and the work is restricted in areas nearer to metalled roads.
They said that transportation of machinery for dredging and repair of canals is not likely to be completed in most of the areas as the machinery detail for this work is not sufficient to meet the requirement. At the same time the machinery is old and has been put to use after repair. They said that the agriculture extension work was also suspended in coastal areas of Badin and Thatta. The availability of quality fertiliser is also difficult in these areas.
They said that the effect of previous drought were yet to be dealt with whereas the shortage of water, cleaning of canals and availability of fertiliser in the coastal areas has created a new situation to deal with.