‘Six Thousand Years’ History of Irrigation of Sindh’ now available in Sindhi

The Sindhi translation of the late MH Panhwar’s book ‘Six Thousand Years’ History of Irrigation of Sindh’ was launched at the Karachi Press Club on Friday.
The event was jointly arranged by the press club and the Institute of Ethics and Culture, and it was attended by Dr Ashiq Albadvi, Dr Suleman Otho, Haleem Sharar, Ishaq Ansari and the book’s translator Umer Soomro.
On the occasion, the speakers said, a province like Sindh, which to its western hill tracts (Kohistan) is an extension of Irano-Baloch desert and to the east, its sandy Thar is an extension of the Great Indian Desert, is essentially a desert but for its central alluvial plains that are irrigated by the Indus River, making that area a vast oasis in the midst of the two harsh deserts of the world.
They said the history of Sindh is the history of production by the Indus River waters and the history of its changing courses that invariably have lead to famines, starvation, deaths and change of dynasties with each such atrophy.
The Indus plains have supported as much as 80 percent population of Sindh, and the fluctuations in the level of the Indus River are governed by snow millets in the Himalayas, they added.
The speakers said the author has presented the history of the province through one of the most exhaustive collections of detailed maps from all historical periods of the past 6,000 years.
The author has provided information that would allow the readers to come to their own conclusions about specific issues, they added.