Discovery of artisan well ushers in new era in Tharparkar

By Saleem Shaikh, Dawn.com

March 17, 2011

Fifty-year-old herdsman Mohammad Siddiqui resides in bordering village of Somosama near Khokhrapar north of Umerkot town of Tharparkar district. Every morning he used to move around along with his cattle in the area in search of water for them, some times as far as 20 kilometres. It was very rare that he would find sweet and fresh water in the area.

“Because of protracted drought spells with scarce rainfalls in the district, water level in most of the dug wells of his village, like any another villages, has decreased as much as 700-800 feet, which is usually brought out by means of pulley for domestic purposes,” Mohammad Siddiqui narrated.

But discovery of the weird ‘artisan well’ in Somosama villager, which gushes out an average of 3,84,000 gallons of water daily without any external pumping machine, has cheered up many aggrieved locals like Mohammd Siddiqui.

During a recent visit to the area, this scribe witnessed expressions of delight on faces of the locals and cattle breeders, who were seen huddling their cattle herds now in large multitudes towards the artisan well site from nearby and far-off villages for water.

Some herdsmen say that they bring their cattle daily to the artisan well from faraway villages, some of them located at a distance of 20-22 kilometres, as underground water in their villages is saline and brackish and has been causing serious diseases in their livestock.

“I bring my goats and sheep, which number 53, from Khokhrapar area some 22 kilometres east of the Somosama village as some 23 out of 28 dug wells in my village have brackish water, while level of water of the remaining five has drastically decreased and are on the verge of drying up,” said 33-year-old Hasim.

Forty-year-old Qadir Bux is another herdsman, who lives in the Somosama village and owns some 155 cattle heads. He says this is first of its kind that such an artisan well has been discovered in the entire Tharparkar district.

The healthy water for livestock

The locals observed the water of this artisan well has improved health of the livestock, particularly camels as they have shown improvement in their health faster than any other cattle.

“Milk quality of almost all the cattle including goat, sheep and cows has significantly improved as their milk is now thicker. And, fur of the sheep has turned shiner after they have started consuming the water of the artisan well,” observed camel breeder Qadir Bux.

Most of the dug wells in the surrounding villages of the Tharparkar district are dug as deep as 60-70 metres, but their water being brackish is extremely injurious to health. Therefore, rain water is harvested in small earthen pots with narrow holes for drinking purposes but it hardly lasts for three to four months.

The dry spell in Thar normally extends from the month of December and continues up to May. And during the drought season, most of the villagers of the Tharparkar district temporarily migrate along with their livestock to distant barrage areas and return when it rains.

Destinations are different for the people of various ecological zones. But generally the migratory farm labour from Thar prefers to go to Umerkot, Mirpurkhas, Badin, Hyderabad, Sanghar and Nawabshah districts, where they have enough water for their livestock and labour work in farming lands for their livelihood, informed Dr. Khataumal a local development expert of Thardeep Rural Development Programme (TRDP) based in Mithi, district headquarter of the Tharparkar district.

He said that the major source of livelihood for locals in Thar is livestock breeding and rain-fed farming. “Therefore, any outbreak of disease in livestock, which mostly occurs from consumption of contaminated or highly brackish water of the dug wells, leads to their death in huge number. It results in a huge financial loss for the locals,” he remarked.

Sono Khangharani, CEO of TRDP, said that initially, the well was bored as deep as 700 feet but its water was extremely brackish and smelly. It was of no use for livestock or locals. Later, on the insistence of villagers, who believed that underground fresh water is present 1,350 feet deep in the village, we resumed boring further deeper as down as 1,300 deep, using heavy drilling machines at a cost of Rs2.2 million.

“But, when the boring machine struck at 1,300 feet depth, all of a sudden water came gushing out and the villagers, whose hopes were on the verge of waning, burst into jubilation,” he recalled.

Talking about the impact of artisan well’s water quality and its impact on cattle, TRDP’s senior manager for development works, engineer Jhaman, termed the artisan well’s water not fit for human consumption because its’ Parts Per Million (PPM) ratio is around 3,500 while allowable PPM ratio under WHO standards is 500.

“Although locals use this water also for their drinking, it is better to desalinate it to avoid any serious repercussions on human health,” he suggested.

The water of the artisan well is rich in sulphur; that is why, its usage for the livestock has helped reduced their skin diseases,” informed Jhaman Lalchandani.

Recently, an R.O. (water desalination) Plant has been established by the Sindh Coal Authority adjacent to the artisan well, with a capacity of desalinating 50,000 gallon water per day.

Once the R.O. plant starts functioning, the desalination water would usher in a new era of socioeconomic development in the area as it could also be used for agriculture purposes and breeding of healthy livestock, hoped Narumal, a rural development expert in Thar.

Weblink:

http://www.dawn.com/2011/03/17/discovery-of-artisan-well-ushers-in-new-era-in-tharparkar.html

Cattle in Sindh hit by viral diseases

By Saleem Shaikh

Daily Dawn

March 14, 2011

THE outbreak of viral diseases among livestock in Tharparkar, Umerkot, Sanghar and Naushero Feroze districts is assuming serious proportions because of lack of prompt remedial measures by the concerned provincial department.

According to cattle farmers, large number goats, sheep, cows, buffaloes and camels have been hit by viral diseases in central and lower districts of Sindh.

Livestock executive district officers confirmed that they have received reports of Peste des petits ruminants (PPR) disease in goats and sheep, Haloragis in camels and foot and mouth disease among other animals.

“Reports of rising death toll of animals have been received from various areas of Tharparkar, Umerkot, Achro Thar (White Thar) in Sanghar and Naushero Feroz districts. Besides, adjoining districts are also said to be at risk, if officials concerned do not quickly respond to the situation,” said Bachal, a cattle farmer in Samoo Rind village of Umerkot.

“In Nagarparkar in Tharparkar district, scores of animals have been killed during the last three months,” said Santosh Kumar, a veterinary doctor in the town.

He told this scribe that some 10 weeks ago camels started contracting mouth disease in different parts of Tharparkar and Umerkot districts. “Once these animals fall prey to such diseases, they stop eating as their mouth bleeds and they die in three to four days,” Kumar explained.

Deputy Director Livestock Dr Rasheed Nizamani said that according to the livestock census 2006 there are around 6.925 million cattle heads in Sindh, nearly 60 per cent (4.155 million) of them in Tharparkar district alone.

The livestock of the province is growing at an average rate of 2.3 to 2.7 per cent annually following increased investment in the livestock sector, claims Dr Ghulam Sarwar Shaikh, director general Sindh Livestock.

Karimdad Rahimo of Haji Adam Ji Dhani village in Sanghar district recalls: “In January this year the livestock heads, particularly the young and newborn ones, started suffering from diarrhoea, sheep pox, pneumonia and other diseases and on an average five to eight cattle heads died every day.”

The village people said that their cattle was also affected by sore mouth suffered from bluetongue and diarrhea. These diseases caused their animals to bleed, suffer abdominal pain and resulted in their death within three to four days.

However, no vaccination by livestock department officials had been carried out in their area so far, some of them complained.

Situation in other parts of east-southern districts is not different either, where cattle death toll is rising.

Villagers of the Achhro Thar told this scribe over phone that about 133 goats, 1,121 sheep, 23 cows and 29 camels had died during the last three months in Sobharo, Janhaar, Thoorahoo, Maankor and adjoining villages.

“Most of the areas in Tharparkar and Umerkot, Sanghar and Naushero Feroz are without any or proper veterinary facilities.

Their absence results economic miseries of livestock breeders, who are compelled to transport their livestock to private veterinary facilities in Thatta, Badin and Hyderabad for treatment. In some cases, private vets are also called in from these areas to visit the disease-hit villages who charge the livestock owners heavily,” said Ali Akbar Rahimo, an Umerkot-based cattle farming expert.

“My 53 goats and kids suffered from diarrhoea, sore mouth and bluetongue diseases and a few of them died two weeks back. The infected goats bleed from mouth, remain lazy and do not eat or drink anything and after getting weaker die in one or two days,” said Ali Jalal of Samo Rind village in Umerkot district.

Mehar Ali Samoo of Kasboo area in Nagarparkar said he had lost 25 goats so far to the bluetongue viral disease. However, getting no help from taluka livestock officials, I had to take my cattle to private veterinary hospital in Badin, where I was charged Rs900 per visit. In addition, I had to spend about Rs4,300 for transporting the cattle and buying medicines.

The livestock officials in the districts said they lacked funds and required facilities to fight the diseases which prevented them from visiting the affected areas.

Umerkot EDO( agriculture and livestock) Ghulamullah Jarwar said he had dispatched some teams to the affected areas to study the problem, diagnose them and vaccinate the infected animals accordingly.

“The outbreak of the disease is a common phenomenon after rains in Thar region, which was controllable after vaccination,” he said.

He, however, hoped the problem would be brought under control soon by launching vaccination drive in the affected areas.

Livestock officials in Umerkot, Sangahr and Naushero Feroz districts attributed inadequate funds and lack of transport facilities as major constraints in delivery of their services to viral-hit cattle farmers.

“We have written to the provincial government to provide vet diagnosis kits, medicines, vaccinations and funds to strengthen the laboratories in different districts, particularly in Tharparkar, Umerkot and Badin districts to overcome the livestock diseases and save them from death, said Dr. Rashid Nizamani.

Weblink: www.dawn.com/2011/03/.../cattle-in-sindh-hit-by-viral-diseases.html