Sari Pul lacks irrigation water, school buildings

SARI PUL CITY (PAN facilities.

They added farmers could not cultivate 50 percent of farmland across the province each year due to scarcity of irrigation water.

Most schools in the province have no buildings, they complained, saying residents’ faith in the education system was increasingly eroding in the absence of professional teachers and textbooks.

A resident of Syedabad area on the outskirts of Sari-i-Pul City, Haji Zafran, said no one could cultivate his entire fields with crops due to lack of irrigation water. He said half of crops grown in the province were rain-fed.

He feared most farmland could become barren fields if the water shortage persisted, asking the authorities concerned to pay heed to the problem.

Some farmers said water in the available rivers in Sari Pul was not enough to meet irrigation demand.

A Sozma Qala district resident, Khudai Birdai, said the issue of irrigation water had aggravated to the extent that most farmers looked forward to rains and snowfall for their crops.

“I own 38 jirbs of agriculture land, but hardly grow crops on 20 jirbs depending on rains and the rest goes uncultivated each year,” he said.

Agriculture director Mohammad Jaffar Amirzada confirmed many farmers were unable to bring under cultivation their entire fields due to water shortage.

He said there were two rivers — Spin and Toor — irrigating agriculture fields in the province, where 640,000 jirbs availed irrigation water and 300,000 jirbs rain-fed and the rest covered by orchards.

“If there is enough rain, it enables farmers to cultivate 40 percent of their land, not even 50 percent,” he said.

Residents also complained about lack of education facilities. A tribal elder, Syed Yaqub, in Charbagh area, which lies close to the provincial capital, said the education affairs were far from satisfactory in the area schools.

He said he had received a number of complaints from residents regarding lack of school buildings, professional teachers and textbooks.

A 10th grade student in Gosfandi district, Abdullah, complained he attended class without having books of all subjects.

“I have only four books. Our teachers often remain absent from school and I don’t like going to school due to these problems.”

Governor Abdul Jabbar Haqbin said efforts were being made to resolve education related problems during the ongoing academic year.

He said 232 schools had proper buildings across the province and another 75 school buildings would be constructed this year.

The governor said they needed the central government’s assistance in making the delivery of textbooks to students in Sari Pul.

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