By our staff reporter
BADIN: Qabool Mohammad Khatian, the chairman of Area Water Board Left Bank Canal System of Kotri Barrage has held the bodies being run by the federal government responsible for the persistent water crisis in tail-end areas of lower Sindh and the entire Sindh in general .
Mr. Khatian speaking to media persons here on Sunday said that the canals of Kotri barrage were facing the worst shortage of the water due to which they were finding it hard to provide the required water to farmers of different districts of both banks for their crops. He said that IRSA and other bodies, which are responsible for the just and judicious water distribution among the provinces as per the indents, were only trying to divert the flows of water towards the canals of Punjab. He said that currently the canals of Kotri barrage were facing terribly water shortage of water and termed the situation very alarming.
Mr Khatian deplored the fact that IRSA functionaries had given 18 less water to Sindh than its due shares adding he warned of the dire consequences if the authority did not mend its ways in future.
He said that the authorities of the same bodies had made a great mess during the Kharif season and deprived Sindh of its due share of water throughout the season and this again they were doing the same dirty tricks despite the protests by the high-ups of the Sindh government. Mr Khatian lamented the fact that water shortage downstream Kotri Barrage had wreaked havoc in the coastal belt of the province. ” The entire belt which was once famous for the fertile farms and huge fish catch by the fisher communities has been in shambles and thousands of the people had to migrate to other areas after sea erosion due to unavailability of water” he added. Mr. Khatian said that the environment and ecology of the entire belt had been ravaged by the man-made disaster adding he requested the environmentalists from across the country to visit the deserted areas and carry out their studies and show the same to those, who were imprudently claiming that releasing water into the sea was the nothing but wastage of water. He noted with grief that people in the devastated coastal belt were living in subhuman conditions due unavailability of water, adding he lashed out at the federal government for making mockery of the real issues of Sindh including the worsening conditions of the coast of the province.
Mr. Khatian, who is himself a landowner in different districts of Sindh including Badin said that Imran Khan-led PTI government had only created the problems for the farmers and growers for its ill-conceived policies adding he held that PTI government was only interested to destroy the economy of the country including the agriculture sector. He said that it would be totally insane to even think of constructing new canals to irrigate more lands in Punjab at the time when the lower riparian were not getting less than their allocated share of water even during the monsoon season. He said despite the continued water crisis at Kotri barrage they were trying their best to ensure the just and judicious water distribution without any discrimination. He said that it was the right of the people of lower Sindh to register their peaceful protest against the water shortage in their waterways and said that they could only water for irrigation purposes when the equal distribution was ensured in the entire system of the country. Mr. Khatian said that the ongoing spells of rainfalls would prove beneficial for the standing crops of the current season.