Farm unions demand canal water for irrigation purposes

Amritsar, August 14

The demand for rejuvenation of the canal irrigation system in the state is gradually becoming the main demand of farmer unions and community as the continuous depletion of water table has become a threat to the agriculture sector.

Developed by the British, the canal irrigation system in the state has nearly collapsed and farmers are forced to draw water from ground to irrigate their crops.

Farmer leader Rattan Singh Randhawa said: “There was a time when the entire land was irrigated using canal water. Now that the system has collapsed, famers are relying only on ground water.”

Randhawa said the increase in awareness among the community in general and farmers in particular had again brought the focus on the need for canal irrigation.

Dr Satnam Singh Ajnala of the Jamhoori Kisan Sabha said: “There are a number of issues pertaining to canal irrigation system which need to be addressed.” He said their union had staged a protest against Irrigation Department officials for taking water out of the Upper Bari Doab Canal (UBDC) and putting it in Beas.

“The water from the UBDC is diverted to the Chakki river in Gurdaspur using a distributor which takes it to the Beas,” he said adding that they demand strengthening of the UBDC so that the water was made available to fields.

The farmer leaders stated that the community understands that agriculture cannot go on for many years until the old canal system is revived. With the water table going down to over 80 feet in most of the areas, farmers are already forced to use high horsepower pumps to draw water.

Most of the farmer unions operating in the region presently had listed the issue on priority in their memorandums presented to the officials at the time of the protests.