Canal water reaches several Punjab villages after decades amid fears of desertification

The AAP government’s promise to provide canal water in the tail ends had rekindled his hopes. With the efforts of the village youth and employees of the department, the outlet was cleaned before the paddy season last year.

“We did not know there was a khaal passing through our village. We used to hear from our family elders that there used to be canal water supply to our village and that clean and cold water from the canal network would reach here. When the tubewells reached every village of Punjab, the farmers usurped the outlets and ploughed them and started growing crops,” Ravinder Singh told The Indian Express.

“We got in touch with the canal department. They helped us in getting the land back. We all worked together to get these outlets dug up, remove the weeds and start the water supply. We have achieved it. In our village alone, 30-40 per cent of irrigation is done with this canal water. You can imagine how much water and power we are able to save. Our mission now is to make it 60 to 70 per cent so that more water is saved,” he added.

Zora Singh, another farmer, said that villagers were elated to get the canal water. “The only task now is to keep these outlets cleared of weeds. Only people who have a determination to conserve groundwater can do it. This is a revolution taking place,” he said.

Canal water has reached Gujjerheri village near Bhadson in Patiala as well after four decades.

In Janisar village in Jalalabad, the canal water reached after 35 years after a pipeline was laid in a low-lying area and the water course restored. Similarly, in Gagewal village of Mehal Kalan in Barnala, canal water reached after more than 25 years. In Ajnala, Chhinna, Isapur, Mohaar, Pothiyan and Pindi Saida in far-away Amritsar, canal water was supplied after 35 years, as per government records.

In Rajoana Kalan in Raikot in Ludhiana district, canal water reached after 25 years as the government encouraged farmers to clean their water courses and use the canal water for irrigation.

Moga district’s Mandar village received canal water after 20 years. Some villages such as Takhar and Mouli in Phagwara and Paddi Matwali and Gobindpur in Banga received canal water for the first time.

Till last year, 28 per cent of the cultivated area in Punjab was irrigated with canal water and 72 per cent of the area with the help of tubewells.

Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann says 58 per cent of the cultivated area is now irrigated with canal water, thanks to his mission to prevent desertification. He says he has also managed to ensure that canal water reaches the tail ends. He has set a target to ensure that canal-water irrigation covers over 70 per cent of the area.

14 lakh tubewells or ‘pumps of sorrow’

Punjab has 14 lakh tubewells, which pump out water from aquifers, to irrigate the crops. There were only 1.92 lakh tubewells in 1970. There are fears of desertification as Mann often bemoans that 78 per cent of 150 blocks are in extreme dark zones owing to the depletion of the groundwater table.

The 14 lakh tubewells may have helped farmers grow grains and fill the granaries of the country, but they are no less than “pumps of sorrow” for Punjab. They not only pump out water, taking the groundwater table to a new low every year, but also burn a hole in the exchequer, as the state government provides free power to these pump sets and pays a subsidy of around Rs 10,000 crore every year.

Congress MLA Rana Gurjit Singh recently wrote to the chief minister seeking help to save groundwater. When he was a minister, he had written to the prime minister that 27 per cent of the area in Punjab was irrigated by canal water and the rest with groundwater. The area under irrigation by groundwater has increased from 55 per cent to 73 per cent, he wrote.

Although the use of canal-based irrigation has slowly picked up in the Malwa region, farmers in Majha largely prefer tubewells. Despite the presence of a sizeable network of canals, its use needs to be optimised even in Malwa as only 21 per cent water of the Bhakra Main Line canal, 31 per cent of the Ghaggar branch and 45 per cent of the Patiala feeder are being used for irrigation.