by Misbah Saba Malik ISLAMABAD, July 16 (Xinhua) — Noor Ahmad Leghari, a farmer in Nawab Shah district of Pakistan’s south Sindh province, is worried about the future of his cotton crop as he couldn’t get much irrigation water this year owing to the ongoing water crisis in the country.
Besides Leghari, thousands of farmers in the country are feared to meet the same fate due to water scarcity in Pakistan.
In addition, the storage last year was 3.6 million acre feet and this year it was only 0.22 million acre feet, revealing a big gap in storage capacity and inflows.
Uzair Qamar, professor of water resource management and engineering in University of Arid Agriculture Faisalabad, told Xinhua that this year snow melting process was slower than previous years in the country’s northern mountainous regions owing to low temperatures.
He added that the cropping area irrigated by canal water in the country’s Punjab and Sindh province has increased over the years, but new dams were not constructed, resulting in the widening gap of supply and demand of irrigation water.
Pakistan’s top water reservoirs Tarbela Dam and Mangla Dam are already facing erosion and their water storage capacity is likely to reduce by 33 percent by 2020.
Experts believe that in the absence of new dams, the irrigation system of the country will be badly affected.
Qamar said that the issue is more serious than lack of water for irrigation.
The court also asked the public to donate money for the cause.
Pakistan is an agriculture economy and about 70 percent of its population is directly or indirectly associated with this sector.