HYDERABAD: The Sindh Abadgar Board (SAB) considers encroachment on natural drains across Sindh as one of the reasons for rain triggered flash floods in the province which affected millions of people and caused thousands of billions of rupees in financial losses.
A meeting of the board, which is a farmers’ lobbying group, here on Sunday expressed deep concern over the colossal losses sustained by the agriculturists and livestock farmers in Sindh.
Dr Muhammad Bashir Nizamani, Vice President of the board, chaired the meeting. Dr Zulfiqar Yousfani, Aslam Mari, Usman Bozdar, Arbab Ahsan, Yar Muhammad Laghari and other office bearers and members of SAB attended.
The farmers expressed sadness that they and their counterparts had sustained hundreds of billions of rupees losses as standing crops of dates, onion, cotton, rice, chillies and many other vegetables were devastated by rains and flood.
“The farmers won’t be able to sow wheat and other winter crops because the flash flood is unlikely to recede from the submerged agricultural lands in next three to four months,” they said.
The SAB’s farmers said the government would have to take emergency measures to clear the flooded agricultural fields to allow the sowing of the winter crops including wheat.
They warned that if wheat could not be cultivated timely a food crisis might entail, and it would force the government to import expensive wheat.
The board demanded that the government should take urgent measures to remove all encroachment from the paths of the natural drains.
The meeting demanded of the government to waive the taxes and agricultural loans and to provide free seeds and fertilizer to the farmers in the province.
The farmers said the standing water had become breeding grounds of mosquitoes which were not only making the humans sick with malaria but livestock animals were also being affected.
They called for supply of fumigation machines and chemicals to all the villages so that the people could protect themselves and their livestock from mosquitoes.
