Pulwama farmers suffer due to water scarcity despite living alongside Jhelum
Pulwama: It is ironic that paddy farmers from several villages of south Kashmir’s Pulwama district are facing an acute water shortage—despite residing along the banks of the Jhelum river, locals alleged Wednesday.
Agricultural communities in villages like Chersoo, Hariparigam, Kachchkoot, Reshipora, Dogripora, Baigpora, Padgampora, and Larkipora are struggling to irrigate their paddy fields due to a weak irrigation infrastructure, they said.
“The paddy fields are cracking and drying. We watch the Jhelum flow past our land, but not a drop reaches our fields,” said Bashir Ahmad Bhat, a farmer from Awantipora.
He attributes the crisis to years of unchecked sand extraction from the riverbed. “The massive and unregulated sand mining has deepened the riverbed, rendering lift irrigation schemes ineffective.”
Locals say the extensive sand mining between Sangam and Pampore has led to a sharp drop in the riverbed level, making it impossible for lift pumps to draw water. As a result, irrigation canals lie defunct and fields go dry.
In Chersoo, the malfunctioning of the Darbal lift pump has affected hundreds of kanals of land.
“We even offered to pay the Irrigation and Flood Control (IFC) department to visit and repair the lift system,” said a desperate farmer from Larmoh. “We’re ready to contribute for the repairs, but our pleas have gone unheard.”
The farmers say their livelihoods are hanging by a thread, and if immediate measures are not taken, they will have no option but to stage protests as far authorities have failed in working on ground.
Despite being so close to a major water source, these farmers are reeling under a man-made drought — a crisis they believe could have been avoided with better planning, maintenance, and regulation.
They have sought the attention of higher ups in this regard immediately.
They said that for the last several years now government is well aware of the situation as water level goes down in summer but they are acting as mute spectators.
They need to upgrade the infrastructure so that even if water level will go down, drought pumps should continue to function and farmers shouldn’t suffer as they dependent on agriculture land for their livelihood.
