Farmers and crop growers in Sindh facing an acute crisis due to shortage of irrigation water which is wrought in some enmity against the province, said Chief Minister Sindh Murad Ali Shah in a presser on Friday.
Today more than half of Khareef crop season has passed but we have not yet received our share as enshrined in Indus River System Authority (ISRA) document which is 8.292 per cent, CM Murad Ali Shah said, adding that the province has only received 5.385 pc, he said.
He said in the last Khareef season the province got 35 pc less water than accorded by the document. This season Sindh has faced 19 pc shortage while Khareef is more than halfway past.
In the month of May we were given 38 pc less water, in June 27 pc and then in July a shortage of 9 pc was suffered by the province and thus it was translated in the provision of water to Balochistan as well
.For now, Dadu’s rice canal has the worst water scarcity and the crop grower dependent on the rice canal need water urgently to sustain their crop.
If this malpractice in decision-making continues, there will a crisis of potable water as well, he dreaded.
After heeding Sindh health department’s advisory on the recent rise in Covid cases, Chief Minister Sindh Murad Ali Shah has further deferred the reopening of schools by one week to now open on August 30.
Holding a press conference in Karachi principally to address the woes of farmers and crop growers amid the water crisis, the province chief said the deferment of reopening comes after health department’s warnings of a potential spike in Covid cases.
