HYDERABAD: The Sindh Chamber of Agriculture has expressed concern that a lack of measures to rehabilitate Left Bank Outfall Drain (LBOD), Puran, Main Nara Valley (MNV) Drain, Kadhan Pateji Outfall Drain (KPOD) and other saline drains will likely trigger spillovers from those water channels during monsoon rains.

A meeting of the SCA, a farmers’ lobbying group, at its office here on Sunday, chaired by its President Syed Meeran Muhammad Shah, expressed fears that the upcoming monsoon rains might again cause the drowning of many urban and rural parts of Sindh.

The meeting demanded that the Sindh government should immediately kickstart the rehabilitation works and remove all forms of encroachment impeding the flow of water in the saline channels.

The farmers lamented that around 18,000 cusecs of water was being stolen between Taunsa and Guddu barrages in Punjab from the share of the lower riparian Sindh.

“We are deeply concerned because no development works can be seen on LBOD and other major saline drains,” the SCA’s president said in a statement.

He recalled that the agriculture sector in Sindh suffered colossal financial losses to the tune of Rs1,400 billion due to torrential seasonal downpours as well as spillovers and breaches in the saline drains which were triggered by rains.

Shah said the farmers had pointed out that many cuts in the banks of the saline drains which were given during rains last year had not been plugged so far, adding the LBOD and Puran made thousands of families homeless after flooding scores of villages.

The farmers at the meeting rejected the government fixed rate of Rs8,500 per maund for the cotton crop and demanded Rs12,000 per maund price for their produce, arguing that the price even fell short of their cost.

They deplored that Sindh was stipulated to receive 70,000 cusecs water at Guddu barrage during the ongoing season but the province was getting only over 46,000 cusecs.

The SCA said the existing water indent was far short of the province’s season demand of 80,000 cusecs because the rice sowing was underway.

The meeting also expressed concern over the 28 per cent markup rate which was being charged against the agricultural loans from the farmers.

The office bearers and members of the SCA including Zahid Hussain Bhurgari, Nabi Bux Sathio, Mir Abdul Karim Talpur, Asghar Noonari, Murad Ali Khan Nizamani and others attended the meeting.