Poor canal system reason behind farmers' groundwater dependence

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Amritsar, June 6

Farmers in the land of five rivers are forced to depend on groundwater as they are unable to get water through the canal irrigation system.

In most rural areas, farmers are over-dependent on tubewells as the century-old canal irrigation system has already collapsed.

In villages, having lost hope of getting canal water again, farmers started cultivating crops of the land which previously were occupied by canal minors and water channels.

“These were of no use as water had not flown in them for years,” said Nirmal Singh, a farmer.

One of such distributaries, which farmers have included in their fields, used to flow through Neshta, Mahawa, Rajatal and Daoke villages in Attari area. Encroachments on lands of smaller distributaries (khal) running through fields is even more common. Even where larger distributaries (Suwa) are flowing, the absence of Khal is a hindrance as farmers cannot take water to their fields.

Even the century-old Kiran nullah, which was a lift system-fed distributary to provide irrigation facility to dozens of villages such as Miadian, Nepal, Kotli, Kehra, Motla, Jaramkot, Poongae in Ajnala subdivision has not seen water flowing in it over two decades.

The farmers complained that free electricity for tubewells and lack of will of governments towards the canal irrigation system has resulted in the present situation. “Such is the situation that even the farmers who own land near river embankment areas in Ajnala are forced to draw ground water as they do not have a system to get water from the river,” said farmer leader Joginder Singh.