Palwal faces irrigation crisis as canals run dry, growers worried

Bijendra Ahlawat

Palwal, June 16

The farming activity has been adversely impacted in the wake of shortage of supply of irrigation water in around 100 villages in the district. With sweltering heatwave conditions, the fields have gone parched, making the crops faced with the risk of drying up.

100 villages affected

Of the total 280 villages in the district, 100 depend on rainfall for irrigation as the ground water there is brackish. These villages are now facing a big problem. Mahavir Singh Malik, Retired official, Agriculture department

According to sources, the availability of water in the minors (water channels) connected with the Agra and Gurugram canals, passing through the district, had gone down to a very low level in the past two weeks, resulting in the crisis.

The decreased supply in the Agra canal, controlled by the Irrigation Department of Uttar Pradesh, has led to the drying up of water channels in many parts. Sources claim that the supply, which was around 250 cusecs against the demand of about 800 cusecs for the past over a year, has now reduced severely. The district has around 1.07 lakh hectares of land which has been under cultivation.

“Though around 40 minors or channels carry the water to the tail end of the district and the neighbouring Nuh district, the poor availability of water has been a matter of concern,” says Gajraj Arya, a social activist in Hathin.

He said the delayed launch of the cleaning work, which needed to be taken up in March or April, had aggravated the problem. Joginder of Manpur village said, “The farmers are facing the threat to their kharif crops due to lack of irrigation for the past many weeks.”

“While the problem of poor supply has been persistent for a long time, the situation in the villages located on the tail end was bad,” says Bhagat Singh, a resident of the district. Blaming inequitable distribution of the canal water for the problem, Mahender Singh, a farm leader, said the supply or irrigation water needed to be doubled up in view of the heat wave conditions affecting the crops.

Irrigation Department Executive Engineer Mohit Vashishta said while the cleaning work taken at some places had affected the supply in the canals, efforts were on to ensure supply of water to the fields despite the hot weather and adverse conditions.