BADIN, Aug 13: About 1,500 villages and crops over a large swathe of land were flooded when more than 40 breaches occurred in the Left Bank Outfall Drain (LBOD), along with over 20 saline water drains and irrigation canals, after heavy rain battered southern Sindh’s Badin district.

Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah toured the area on Saturday and declared the district calamity-hit, waiving off water levy and crop tax for affected farmers. He said that compensation for lives lost and properties damaged would be announced after a survey.

The breaches occurred because embankments of drains and canals were in a wretched state of maintainance. The disaster caused displacement of thousands of villagers and they had to be sheltered in different government buildings and schools.

There was a shortage of medicines and food for the displaced people.

Locals accused officials of the Sindh Irrigation and Drainage Authority (Sida) and the Irrigation Department of compounding their misery because they failed to maintain saline water drains and reduce water level in canals when rains raised the water level.

They alleged that breaches had occurred because of backflow of drains and a decrepit condition of canal embankments, inundating 80 per cent crops of cotton, tomatoes and paddy.

According to villagers, no irrigation official visited the area during the spell of heavy rain when the water level was rising alarmingly. This inaction compelled farmers to fend for themselves. All they could do was to make cuts in drains and canals in order to save their homes and crops. But these cuts could ultimately prove more dangerous in case rain lashed the region again.

People made breaches on both sides of LBOD, near Shaikhani Ghari, to save the coastal town of Behadmi, adjoining villages and property because the drain was overflowing at many points. Other drains and canals which overflowed included Bachal Shah drain, Bukhari drain, Golarchi drain, Soharahdhi minor, Dhadarko minor, Ghulam Mohammad distributary and Laghari drain near Khorwah.

A hapless administration sought the army’s help to rescue more than 300 people marooned in Yousuf Bhoot, Widhri Chak and Kabali Chak villages of Tando Bago taluka.

The villagers complained that they had lost a big number of cattlehead after a breach in LBOD, near Shadi Large.

The chief minister met a group of displaced people at the Government Boys High School in Badin and assured them of compensation after damage assessment.

Qaim Ali Shah said the provincial government had given Rs 5 million for relief work to the district administration and the federal government had been asked for further funding.

The chief minister gave instructions to officials concerned about provision of food and medical facilities and gave away ration bags.