BADIN – The issue of canal water shortage across the district would be resolved soon and water supply to tail-end areas would be ensured.
These views were expressed by Provincial Minister for Agriculture Ismail Rahu while chairing a meeting with government officials, SIDA representatives and growers at Darbar Hall Badin on Saturday.
He issued directives to concerned authorities that they must assured the reach of water at tail-end growers.
He expressed that August is going to end but yet there no sufficient quantity of water is available in the different canals of district that caused of destruction of the crops and people of district were in dire need of water.
“I have given directives from my leadership and especially Sindh chief minister that I should take concrete efforts to assure the availability of water at tail-end areas at any cost,” he added.
The minister said that no any negligence would be accept adding that all illegal water courses must be closed on immediate basis and he also directed the officials to remove lift machines from the canals with assistance of Rangers, police and district administration.
It is our prime duty to make assure the availability of water, he added.
The meeting was participated by MPA Haji Taj Muhammad Mallah, Haji Sain Bux Jamali, PPP General Secretary Aslam Rahu, Asif Jan Siddique and others.

With a portable freshwater harvester in development, up to 10 gallons of water could be harvested from the air every hour.
The researchers, led by Shing-Chung Wong, PhD, presented their findings during the 256th National Meeting & Exposition of the ACS, hoping to address worldwide water shortage.
There’s investment in wastewater treatment, but I thought that effort alone was inadequate,” said Wong.
Water scarcity inspired Wong and his group of researchers to focus on developing an alternative method of freshwater harvesting.
In their opinion, recycling waste water is expensive and does not meet the demand for water.
How does the portable freshwater harvester work?
Wong, together with his students from the University of Akron, say their device uses a nanofiber-based method of water collection where they employ the use of elctrospun polymers.
Through electrospinning, polymer fibers “ranging from tens of nanometers to 1 micrometre” are produced by the electrical forces.
By use of both hydrophilic and hydrophobic polymers, which attract water and discharge water respectively, the device can harvest 744 mg/ cm2/ h, which, according to Wong and his team, is 91 percent higher than similarly designed devices without nanofibers.
The portable freshwater harvester has a high chance of success due to the efficient ratio implemented into the design paired with its efficient minimal energy requirements.

DADU: Consumers of the Sukkur Electric Power Company (SEPCO) held separate demonstrations on Saturday as life has come to a standstill in Dadu and its adjoining region including Johi, KN Shah and Mehar towns due to unannounced and prolonged electricity load-shedding of up to15 hours a day.
Reportedly, protestors chanted full-throat slogans against SEPCO atrocities while holding banners and placards at SSP Chowk, and claimed that they had been suffering through water scarcity due to prolonged power outages in the scorching heat of summer.
Meanwhile, they appealed to the Prime Minister of Pakistan Imran Khan for resolving water and power crisis on the priority basis, and ensure prevention of ‘inflated’ electricity detection bills.
Furthermore, they demanded PM Imran Khan to constitute a probe committee headed by National Accountability Bureau (NAB) and Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) officials to conduct an impartial inquiry into the alleged corruption by SEPCO officers, who had been issuing inflated bills of up to 2000 extra units to the consumers in Dadu.
Another rally was carried out in Mehar town by SEPCO consumers in Mehar against water shortage and load-shedding.
The protesters alleged that SEPCO officials had been supplying ‘illegal’ power to Ice, Cotton and Rice factories, hotels and many influential people.
Furthermore, another rally was carried out in Johi where a large number of people gathered and accused SEPCO officials of taking bribe of Rs 25,000 on monthly basis by supplying power to 600 tube wells in Kachta area of taluka Johi, and suspending power supply to residential areas.
Residents of KN Shah also staged a demonstration against SEPCO, and appealed to the PM Imran Khan and Chief Justice of Pakistan Mian Saqib Nisar for taking a stern action against irregularities in SEPCO department.
Published in Daily Times, August 26th 2018.

(MENAFN – Pajhwok Afghan News) ZARANJ (Pajhwok): Residents of this capital city of southwestern Nimroz province say a $21.5 million water supply network has failed because 35 percent of the city inhabitants still lack access to clean drinking water.
They say former president Hamid Karzai ordered the Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development (MRRD) in 2012 to execute Qala-i-Fath Water Supply Network project in Chahar Burjak district of Nimroz after people faced acute shortage of water there.
Despite spending millions of dollars on this project, still every third family in Zaranj city still do not have access to drinking water, according to local people.
Abdul Hamid, a resident of fourth police district of Zaranj, also said the water supply network project had failed as many people in the city still lacked access to clean water.
€œWe are facing an acute shortage of water, I and one of my friends bought a water pump to transfer water from one area to another, but it did not help and,€ he said.
Meanwhile, Gul Ahmad, a provincial council member, told Pajhwok that Qala-i-Fateh Water Supply Network was 45 kilometers away from Zaranj city and it did not provide enough water to people.
He said pumps of two among six deep wells that supplied water to Zaranj city were not working.
Eng.
Shah Wali, Nimroz Water Utility head, acknowledged the water network project had problems in the beginning because it had not been properly surveyed and designed.
He said poor management and shortage of personnel in the Water Utility caused the project to face problems.

Water is increasingly essential for the sustenance of human life; people’s livelihoods, food security and socio-economic stability as well.
In addition, Pakistan is absolutely dependent on water resources because they fuel agriculture.
Likewise, economic growth and advancement of agriculture and economy truly lies in water availability.
But the depressing fact is that Pakistan is facing severe water shortage at present.
There is not only an acute drinking water scarcity but also the irrigation water crisis which in turn, are adversely affecting the agriculture sector and the livelihood of the common people.
There are multiple reasons behind this extreme water shortage including lack of water reservoirs and storage dams, wastage of water and poor water resource management an preservation policies.
On the other hand, climate change is also one of the root causes of water shortage in Pakistan which has caused drought like situation in rural and remote areas.
Keeping in view large chunk of Pakistan’s population have no access to safe and clean drinking water.
Besides, according to the news report ‘70 percent water in Pakistan is not suitable for human consumption’.
There is no denying the fact that Pakistan is the water stressed country at the stage but if the visible measures are not taken in this very direction, resultanly, Pakistan will be water scarce country from water stressed by 2025(policy makers predict).

According to reports capita availability of water in Pakistan is expected to hit "absolute water scarcity" levels by 2025.
According to an earlier report by UN report – the country may run out of water by 2025.
New Delhi: In his maiden address to the nation as Pakistan’s Prime Minister, Imran Khan, among other issues, highlighted the impending water crisis gripping the Islamic Republic.
Pakistan by ‘Kaptan’ Khan’s own admission is facing one of the worst debt crises in its history.
He also pointed out about high child mortality rate due to contaminated water.
Neil Buhne, UN Humanitarian Co-ordinator for Pakistan said no person in Pakistan will be immune to the water crisis.
The report says Pakistan is on the way to become the most water-parched country in the region by 2040.
The reasons for taps running dry in Pakistan are mainly population growth, groundwater depletion, inadequate storage facilities, poor management of water resources and storage facilities among others.
The quality of issue is another issue.
A PCRWR study found that in 2015-16 about 70 percent of water samples collected were found to be unsafe for human consumption.

Water is now a scarce commodity at Chamba in the Northern Region following the break down of majority of boreholes in the area which are more than two decades old.
The problem has been further compounded by the drying up of a dam in the community that serves as its main water source.
“We don’t have any other source of water,” a resident told Joy news.
The community has about 14 boreholes serving the thousands of people.
Majority of the residents are thus forced to rely on a dirty dam in the area for their daily chores which they share with animals.
And the drying up of the dam has left the residents with no water.
“The water is not even good but this is the only source of water.
Isn’t it pitiful that I have to drink from this dirty dam?” another resident said.
So we are appealing to government, we are on our knees.
“We need water, that’s all.

The residents of district headquarters are experiencing peak summer in the rainy season.
The residents who were used to getting drinking water supplied daily are now facing a shortage with water being supplied once in two days and some places it is more irregular, due to the main source of drinking water for Sangareddy and Hyderabad — Manjeera Dam — going dry.
The Manjeera reservoir has to get water from Singoor which has not yet received any inflows due to lack of sufficient rains in Karnataka, which was the catchment area for the project.
To add to the woes, existing water in Singoor was diverted to Mid Manair project in Karimnagar district to save the standing crops there.
The scarcity of water in Singoor is adversely impacting the needs both drinking water and irrigation.
As on Saturday, Singoor has 517.22 m of water against the full reservoir capacity of 523.6 m. As on Saturday the reservoir had 7.591 tmcft against the full reservoir capacity of 29.917 tmcft.
“Manjeera has already dried up and hence we are supplying water once in two days.
The officials have informed us that they were making efforts to supply water from Mission Bagiratha to the district headquarters by providing a connection from Singoor reservoir.
Prasada Rao told The Hindu .
While there are heavy rains across the State here the situation is quite contrasting,” said an officer in Irrigation Department.

Staff Reporter, To increase ground water level to overcome from water scarcity during Summer, Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) has directed to implement rain water harvesting over private and Government buildings stringently.
Presently, the rain water harvesting is mandatory for the construction of a house over more than 1500 sq mts.
However, the builders are not seriously implement it.
The Town Planning Department of NMC is also neglecting the provisions of Maharashtra Region Town Planning (MRTP) Act, 1964 regarding rain water harvesting.
Pintu Zalke, Chairman of Water Supply Committee, has directed Town Planning Department to strictly followed the rules of rain water harvesting.
He said, it is necessary to take measures to save water to avoid future problems.
The certification of GSDA will be mandatory for the builders and individuals to prove their authenticity.
Harish Gwalbandhi asked that the water supply schedule of Dharampeth and Mangalwari zones has been changed.
The meeting of water supply committee was organised at Dr. Panjabrao Deshmukh Hall of NMC on Saturday.
Deputy leader Narendra (Ballya) Borkar, Deputy Chairman Shradha Pathak, Members Jayshree Rarokar, Harish Gwalbanishi, Sanjay Burrevar, Executive Engineer (Pench Project) Aniruddha Chauganjankar, In-charge Executive Engineer (Water Supply) Pradeep Rajgire, Deputy Engineer Manoj Ganvir, Vice-President of OCW Rajesh Kalra were present.

The residents of district headquarters are experiencing peak summer in the rainy season.
The residents who were used to getting drinking water supplied daily are now facing a shortage with water being supplied once in two days and some places it is more irregular, due to the main source of drinking water for Sangareddy and Hyderabad — Manjeera Dam — going dry.
The Manjeera reservoir has to get water from Singoor which has not yet received any inflows due to lack of sufficient rains in Karnataka, which was the catchment area for the project.
To add to the woes, existing water in Singoor was diverted to Mid Manair project in Karimnagar district to save the standing crops there.
The scarcity of water in Singoor is adversely impacting the needs both drinking water and irrigation.
As on Saturday, Singoor has 517.22 m of water against the full reservoir capacity of 523.6 m. As on Saturday the reservoir had 7.591 tmcft against the full reservoir capacity of 29.917 tmcft.
“Manjeera has already dried up and hence we are supplying water once in two days.
The officials have informed us that they were making efforts to supply water from Mission Bagiratha to the district headquarters by providing a connection from Singoor reservoir.
Prasada Rao told The Hindu.
While there are heavy rains across the State here the situation is quite contrasting,” said an officer in Irrigation Department.