Mir Wah canal pictured on Saturday after a breach in its bank.—PPI

SUKKUR: Water gushing out of a 100-foot breach on Friday night in Mir Wah, a major canal irrigating land in Khairpur district, inundated over 500 acres of agricultural land by Saturday afternoon. Several date palm orchards and wheat stored in 20 houses were washed away. Several houses in Mari Janullah Shah village were also damaged.

Villagers blamed the irrigation department responsible for the devastation and said they had informed the department several months ago about the weakening of embankments of the Mir Wah canal near Begma Jee railway station, but officials did not take any action to repair them.

They said the area people had started plugging the breach on their own, but the damage was so enormous that the task seemed beyond them.

The villagers said the irrigation officials reached the breach site after several hours and some angry people pushed SDO Irrigation Mukhtiar Dharejo, along with his vehicle, into the gushing water.

Later the officials used heavy machinery to reduce the water level in the canal stop the gushing water from further spreading to the area.

With the arrival of additional water through Guddu and Sukkur barrages, a number of breaches have been reported in Jacobabad, Ghotki and Khairpur districts, weakening the canal embankments.

The farming communities of these districts have been accusing the irrigation department of throwing them at the mercy of nature, instead of taking substantive measures.

A 15-foot breach developed in Masoo Wah (canal) in Akhtiar Waseer village, near Mirpur Mathelo, on Saturday. Standing crops on 35 acres came under the water. It took two hours for irrigation officials to plug the breach.

The water level in the Indus is higher than May and June last year and canals are getting ample water.

Local farmers and those living on the bank of canals have been expressing concern that because of lack of proper maintenance and de-silting measures canals will not be able to sustain water pressure and may develop breaches.

They feared that a further increase in the water level might develop more and wider breaches, particularly in Saifullah Magsi branch of Shahdadkot and Sindh-Begari feeder and canals emanating from it in Kandhkot and Shikarpur areas.