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.

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Rainwater harvesting in parched Tharparkar

By Saleem Shaikh

Dawn.com

THE Tharparkar district receives on an average 100mm rain every year, which should be sufficient for its drinking and agriculture purposes. But much of it goes waste due to lack of rainwater harvesting and poor water conservation facilities.

During August last year heavy rains in the Thar Desert recharged parched shallow wells, raised water table in deep wells and filled household cisterns. But, after four months, the Tharis were without sufficient water even for drinking, and many had to walk miles to fetch water. Herdsmen had to take their livestock to barrage areas to avoid mortality among them due to water shortage.

“When it rained heavily, it turned our dusty and arid villages in the district into an oasis with lush green foliage and plenty of water to drink and take bath. It also turned our dried-up rangeland into green meadows and pastures for our cattle. But the accumulated rainwater evaporated within a few months and we had to walk for 4-5 miles thrice a week to fetch water from deep wells. Water of such wells is brackish, contaminated and injurious to both humans` and animals` health,” said Ali Akbar Rahimo of the Association for Water, Applied Education and Renewable Energy in Nagarparkar.

Thar normally experiences drought every third year and famine after each decade, triggering mass migration of peasants to irrigated areas in lower and central Sindh in search of fodder, labour and water. A large number of cattle also die during such arduous journeys.

According to a study of the Pakistan Council for Research on Water Resources (PCRWR), the entire Thar Desert receives around one trillion litres of rain annually “ sufficient, if stored, for three years to meet domestic water needs of the Tharis and their livestock. But, more than 95 per cent of it is lost under sand dunes or evaporates in the sizzling summer due to inadequate storage and rainwater harvesting facilities.

“Even if 0.25 per cent of the rainwater is conserved or harvested, it can meet the domestic water needs of the entire human population and livestock of the area,” said water conservation experts of the PCRWR.

The councils` study found out that hardly 0.06 per cent of the overall annual rain water is harvested by Tharis in household cisterns or in other indigenous ways. However, the study suggests that the water shortage problem can be addressed by improving capacity of rainwater harvest by scaling it up from 0.06 per cent to at least 0.25 per cent of the rainfall.

The Tharparkar district, spread over nearly 22,000 square kilometers, is a chronically poor with an estimated population of 1.2-1.3 million. Of them, 95 per cent people live in and around 2,000 villages.

In a normal day, members of each household spends around 4-6 hours in fetching 4-5 pots (50-60 litters) of water from wells However during the dry season they collect water throughout the day including at nights.

However, rains in Thar invigorate socio-economic activities as people start cultivating crops, bringing back their livestock in herds from barrage areas and storing rainwater as much as possible.

Usually Tharis prepare their fields every year much before the rainy season starts by ploughing and broadcasting seeds of millet (bajhri), cluster bean (guar), sesame (tir), kidney bean (mooth), cow peas (Choonra), musk melon (gidro), water melon (hindano), squash melon (meho), wild cucumber (chibbhar), amaranths (mariro), digeria (lular) and other wild plants. The land in Thar is so fertile that once the ploughed fields receive the first shower, they turn green.

Prior to the rains, the Tharis also clean ditches and depressions locally known as Tal and Tarayoon for storing rainwater.

This water is used both for domestic and drinking purposes.

But, the accumulated rainwater in these ditches and depressions lasts only for three to four months. And for the rest of the eight months of the year, they depend on brackish water of wells, which results in health hazards among humans and livestock.

Often the outbreak of diseases among livestock deepens poverty situation in Thar manifold, as livelihood of the poor 70 per cent depends on livestock rearing.

Mukesh Suther, an Umerkot-based rainwater conservation expert, remarked that “building large ponds and laying a geo-membrane sheet under these (ponds) to stop seepage and covering them with roofs can be of great help in slowing down evaporation of stored rain water during the sizzling summer days.”

He said the government should introduce these low-cost techniques to harvest huge stocks of water, which can help meet needs of the people throughout the year rather than spending millions of rupees on schemes, which have huge recurring costs for maintenances.

Water conservation experts of PCRWR have suggested that piped roof water harvesting, hamlet level chonra pond, hamlet level nadi pond, chalho pond and dug well recharging system could help conserve huge stock of rainwater. But, introduction and promotion of such water conservation techniques was not possible without one time investment by the government.

A senior official in the water section of the Sindh Planning and Development (P&D) Department said: “Although no initiative for rainwater harvesting in Thar has ever been launched by the provincial government, multi-million rupees schemes for tapping rainwater in the desert area are now under consideration of the department`s planners.

There is possibility that such schemes may be included in the next year`s Annual Development Programme (ADP).”

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