Neglect chokes Bist Doab canal

Even water courses to farmers’ fields have got choked or dismantled with only a few distributaries getting water,said sources.

The canal department said during paddy season if farmers use canal water then a huge amount of underground water,which has already gone down drastically,can be saved. They blame lack of funds for neglect of the canal.

Bist Doab canal between the Sutlej and the Beas passes through four districts of Doaba region including Nawan Shahr,Hoshiarpur,Jalandhar and Kapurthala. The canal has its share of 1,452 cusecs water. The water is released in the canal by Bhakhra Beas Management Board (BBMB).

Currently,only 72,000 acres of Doaba region is being irrigated with this canal water,which is six times less then the water-carrying capacity of the canal.

“Majority of farmers in Doaba region are dependent on their underground water and prefer to use that water only. But now we are educating them to use canal water to save the underground water which would get over in a few years,” said Executive Engineer,Bist Doab Division,Jalandhar,Dalip Singh.

He said after years of neglect and shortage of funds many distributaries in the area were cleaned under NREGS last year.

As dryness of these distributaries led to serious depletion of underground water,in several blocks water table had gone down to alarming depth with farmers resorting mainly to paddy cultivation,he said.

“This year,we are expecting to increase area under canal irrigation up to 1.5 lakh acres from 72,000 acres because of the cleanliness of the canal and its distributaries,” added Bist Doab Division SDO A S Chahal.