Eminent water expert, agronomist, bureaucrat and columnist Idrees Rajpoot died at his residence in Karachi at the age of 82 years,after a brief illness on Monday. His family members confirmed the news of his demise. He was born in 1941 in Gurgaon village of undivided India, and his family moved to Pakistan and settled in Tando Allahyar city of Sindh near Hyderabad following the Partition. After that, his family settled in Qambar city, where he received his early education.
Rajpoot earned a Bachelor of Engineering from NED University in 1965 with distinction and joined the Irrigation Department as an Assistant Engineer. In 1970 he was promoted to Executive Engineer and then to Secretary of the Irrigation Department, Government of Sindh. After his retirement in 2002, he was tasked with various assignments to improve irrigation methods in Sindh. After his retirement, he started writing columns for notable Sindhi dailies, including Kawish and Sindh Express, on the nagging water issue of Sindh and its solutions. In the later years of his life he emerged as a vivid proponent of Sindh’s riparian rights by detecting defects in the water‑distribution policies of IRSA.
He wrote columns on methods of agricultural development and on upgrading the irrigation system of Sindh. During the flash floods of 2010, 2011 and 2015 he assisted the Sindh government through his professional expertise. A book titled Greater Thal Canal Aen Kala‑Bagh containing analysis and articles was published in the Sindhi language in 2004. In recognition of his services he was bestowed with the “Dr. Muhabbat Burriro Award” in 2010. A large number of people across Sindh belonging to different walks of life expressed deep grief at his demise. Seasoned agronomist Obhaiyo Khan Khushik, columnist Zahid Ishaque Sommro, Zulfikar Haleboto, Anwer Solangi and others called Idrees Rajpoot an advocate of riparian rights and termed his demise a huge loss.