THATTA: More than 200 fisher families have migrated from 195 villages of union councils Kar Malik, Kothi and Gul Mohammad Baran in Jati taluka towards urban areas and wetlands because of acute shortage of water in their areas.
A survey conducted by Dawn on Wednesday found that the water crisis which, according to locals, was going from bad to worse by each day, had forced the villagers of Haji Dandhal, Shafi Dandhal, Umar Borio, Ishaque Themor, Hassan Samejo and Ibrahim Borio to leave their ancestral abodes for wetlands of Keenjhar, Jamshoro, Jhimpir and Sanghar and barrage areas of lower Sindh.
The villagers said that all sources of water in these villages had either dried up or turned brackish over the past nine months and people had to sell out their cattle, their major source of income, because they had no water to keep them alive.
Besides, farmers could not cultivate 180,000 acres of their fertile land during paddy sowing season because there was no water in canals in the coastal belt, they said.
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Local growers Zahid Soomro, Ghulam Abbas Malkani, Khulqul Rehman Soomro and Yousuf Memon complained that despite passage of three months to Kharif season water had not been released into the tributaries of Pinyari Canal, including Sher Khana Shaakh, Jati Minor, Gadap, Karoondh, Tango Minor, Goongri Large, Maliha and other water channels, which had caused drought like conditions in the area.
They said the situation had worsened because the already hyper saline underground water level was destroying the standing crop. The irrigation department had not released water to the area for months which had turned brackish the little water stored in the reservoirs in a number of villages and wells, they said.
The only option left to the villagers was 25 to 30 km away water supply system of Jati town, an unaffordable task for the poor fishermen, they said.
One of the main reasons, the villagers said, behind persistent water shortage was that corrupt bureaucrats of irrigation department had allowed illegal cuts and installation of water pumping machines in the tributaries of Pinyari Canal either under political pressure or after receiving bribe.
Growers Amir Bux Samejo, Abdul Karim Khaskheli, Loung Rachho, Ghulam Ali Rachho, Ibrahim Chalko and Essa Chalko told this correspondent that they had moved a petition in the district and sessions court of Thatta against the man made water shortage and cited in it as respondents executive engineer irrigation of Sujawal and Jati.
The growers would launch a campaign if they were denied their legitimate water of share in Jati villages and coastline, they warned.
They said if the government did not accept their genuine demands they would be forced to take the extreme steps including self-immolation because their patience had reached the end of their tether.
The families which had migrated from the villages were forced to live dingy camps in subhuman conditions and were compelled to beg to keep body and soul together, they said.
They appealed to the chief minister to take notice of the situation and do them justice.
Sujawal Deputy Commissioner Shoukat Jokhio said the situation was getting worse not because of water shortage at the upstream but because of rampant favoritism and nepotism by the irrigation authorities.
No responsible irrigation official was available for comments.
Published in Dawn, July 10th, 2014