WHILE ‘Form 47’ continues to be the talk of the town, ‘Gate 47’ is generating a very different kind of buzz in Sindh. For context, on June 20, Gate Number 47 of Sukkur Barrage suddenly collapsed, leaving Sindh’s irrigation system in a lurch. Water diversion to seven canals had to be curtailed at a time when irrigation demand for Kharif crops was peaking in the province. As a result, there has been considerable consternation among growers as their rice, cotton and sugarcane crops need water.
Sukkur Barrage forms the spine of Sindh’s agriculture economy, irrigating 80 per cent of all agricultural land in the province. The authorities are scrambling to manage the crisis with the help of Chinese experts who were already working on rehabilitating the barrage. The irrigation minister has also constituted a departmental committee to investigate the matter.
Boasted as a marvel of irrigation engineering, Sukkur Barrage has endured many technical challenges since its inception. Constructed in 1932, the barrage not only helped create a sizeable agricultural economy but also shaped the sociopolitical fabric of Sindh. Scholar Daniel Haines has unravelled the sociopolitical dynamics of the barrage in his book, Building the Empire, Building the Nation: Development, legitimacy and hydro-politics in Sindh, 1919-1969.
Before the advent of a perennial irrigation system during the British era, agriculture in Sindh was practised through primitive inundation canals. In an arid area with a scant average annual rainfall of 100mm, versus........