The crops of wheat and sunflower have been severely damaged due to the shortage of water in the canals. Most of the canals in southern Punjab are closed nowadays.

Acute shortage of water at Kotri Barrage has pressed the panic button in the Water and Sanitation Agency (Wasa) Hyderabad, to replenish it's water lagoons for 15 days keeping in mind the fact that e

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has issued notices to the DCOs of Hyderabad and Tando Mohammad Khan, Sindh Industrial Trading Estate (Site) managing director, Taluka Municipal Administratio

A 12-kilometre long tunnel of 10 metre diametre would be constructed at a cost of Rs 799 crore for carrying Narmada water to the basin of Son river under Bargi diversion project.

The Narmada waters from the neighbouring Gujarat are likely to reach the border districts of Rajasthan by the month-end, enabling the State Government to expand the drinking water and irrigation facil

As a result of special recovery campaign of water cess (Aabiana), the Punjab government has been able to recover an amount of Rs 9.73 million in eight days from the defaulters.

The Central Water Commission (CWC) has avoided to give its explicit opinion on the legality of the controversial Hansi-Butana feeder channel being built by Haryana to the Supreme Court or whether it w

Farmers are hard hit by the re-closure of water in the canals in Abbasia and Cholistan areas of Tehsil Liaqatpur, which is affecting the standing wheat crop. Several local councillors including Dr Muhammad Aslam, Chaudhry Asghar Ali lumbardar Abdul Karim and others have urged early release of water in the canals, which had again been closed after a short reprieve earlier. They said water scarcity was also impacting sugarcane sowing, and if the canal closure continued, it would not only hurt the local farmers financially, but would also affect the per acre yield of those vital crops. Copyright Associated Press of Pakistan, 2008

Even as resentment is brewing among the farmers of the SRSP tail-end areas in Peddapalli division over the alleged denial of water supply, the SRSP officials have stepped up vigil in association with the police to prevent unauthorised tapping of water from the main canals in the division to ensure water to the tail-end areas. The aggrieved farmers of the tail-end areas of Dharmaram, Sultanabad, Velgatur and other mandals in Peddapalli division organised agitations in the last week demanding water supply to save their crops. They raised objections over the alleged illegal tapping of water by using the electricity pump-sets in the upstream areas of the main canals and sought action to check the menace. In this backdrop, the SRSP officials released water from the project into some of the reservoirs in an effort to cater to the water requirements of the farmers in the crucial rabi season. The officials have pressed into action special mobile teams along with the police to check illegal tapping of water from the main canals and other untoward incidents to ensure water supply to the tail-end areas. The farmers of the remote areas of Kamanpur mandal have joined the operation to ensure smooth flow of water without any hindrances. Meanwhile, the Bharatiya Kisan Morcha state president P. Sugunakar Rao demanded that the SRSP officials should convene a meeting of the elected representatives of the water users associations to chalk out a strategy to ensure equitable distribution of water to all the farmers up to the tail-end areas of the canals. He warned that the Morcha would launch an agitation if the authorities failed to initiate steps to supply water to the farmers, especially of the tail-end areas, to save their standing crops.

Punjab takes up the challenge THE repair of a canal normally would not have attracted much notice but for the fact that it is for the first time since Independence that a government in Punjab has undertaken to revamp the dilapidated canal system. The embankments along a 25-km stretch of the Patiala feeder, which irrigates large parts of Patiala, Sangrur and Mansa districts, have been strengthened and 4-5 feet of silt has been removed from its bed within just three weeks at a reduced cost of Rs 25 crore. It shows that collective effort and can-do attitude with right motivation from the top can work wonders. The canal network in Punjab has been in bad shape for long. Because of high levels of silt accumulating over the years and broken embankments, the water supply in the canals has sharply reduced. As a result, the area under canal irrigation has come down from 42 per cent in 1990-91 to 28 per cent now. The farmers at the tail-end of the canals are the worst sufferers. They have to depend more on tubewells, particularly in view of the increased cultivation of paddy. Besides, seepage from the ill-maintained canals has aggravated the problem of water-logging in the Malwa region. Political posturing and social conflicts over water issues notwithstanding, not much has been done either in Punjab or Haryana to preserve the existing water resources. Lack of funds due to Punjab's precarious financial condition and the non-levy of user-charges due to policies of appeasement have hit canal maintenance work. Realising the gravity of the situation, the Punjab government has formulated a Rs 3,243-crore plan to repair canals, check water-logging, control floods and recharge ground water. This is commendable, but is not enough. A mass movement is required to conserve and revive water resources, harvest rainwater and encourage the use of sprinklers and drip irrigation to overcome water shortages in the long run.