THATTA, Sept 1: Any further delay in carrying out rehabilitation and remodelling of the Kalri Baghar Feeder Upper (KB Feeder-Upper) will ultimately undermine the K-III water supply scheme — meant for Karachi — and also deal a severe blow to the routine supply of irrigation water to Thatta district, irrigation officials, local political leaders and other stakeholders cautioned the authorities concerned during a recent survey of the water bodies in this district.

The KB Feeder-Upper rehabilitation and remodelling was designed to enhance the feeder’s discharge capacity from 9,100 to 9,800 cusecs. The feeder is a component of the “Water supply for Karachi and upgrading Keenjhar Lake System scheme’ and the only source of filling the Keenjhar lake, which is regarded as lifeline for Karachi feeds around 700,000 acres of agricultural land on the right bank of the Indus in Thatta district. The feeder offtakes from the right side of Kotri Barrage head-works and streams into the Keenjhar lake.

Official sources said that the K-III project had been approved by former president General Mohammad Ziaul Haq on Aug 10, 1988 when an additional 1,200 cusecs from the Keenjhar lake was granted to Karachi.

After negotiations the International Development Association on Dec 21, 1992 at the World Bank headquarters, a comprehensive scheme, with the strengthening and upgrading of the lake and the Nai Baran super passage being its components, was approved and it was decided that it would be entirely finance by the federal government. Initially, the feasibility study carried out by M/s MacDonald International and the ACE Consultants, put the project cost at Rs2,306.713 million which was later revised in 2004 to Rs3,422.782 million.

The scheme envisaged raising and strengthening of the Keenjhar lake embankments, construction of a 4,000-foot spillway and storm-water debris traps, rehabilitation and remodelling of the KB Feeder Upper canal and repair of the Nai Baran super passage.

Obhayo Khan Khushik, a known technocrat and former executive engineer in the irrigation department told Dawn that work on this scheme had been started in phases in 2003-04 and priority was accorded to increasing water carrying capacity of the KB Feeder Upper. “Over Rs2,000 million have already been spent on the scheme but the discharge capacity could not improved,” he said without commenting on a possible reason. He pointed out that the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (KWSB) in the meantime got the K-IV project for an additional 1,200 cusecs from the lake approved and the scheme was to be completed by the end of 2019. “In the absence of an additional supply from the Indus, this scheme shall be highly disastrous for the five coastal talukas of Thatta district,” he warned.

He argued that during the recent Abkalani season, the maximum discharge at the KB Upper was recorded at 7,150 cusecs and officially 8,600 cusecs was to be streamed for irrigating the coastal talukas of Mirpur Sakro, Ghorabari, Kharo Chaan and Thatta. “However, during the Abkalani, the feeder failed to discharge above 7,150 cusecs. Some 1,300 cusecs was routinely diverted to Karachi while the remaining 5,850 cusecs was diverted for irrigation purpose in the command area of the feeder. The shortfall left more than 200,000 acres of fertile land uncultivated.”

He suggested that without achieving main objective of improving the feeder’s discharge capacity to 9,800 cusecs through its rehabilitation and remodelling from RD 0 to RD 189, and repairing the Nai Baran super passage, as envisaged in the study, besides creating the feeder’s additional operating facility, the scheme would yield no positive results.

Supporting the arguments, former PPP MPA Humaira Alwani, Sindh Chamber of Agriculture Thatta President Syed Shehzad Shah Hussaini, Agronomist Aijaz Ali Khwaja and a large number of agriculturists and landowners having their lands on the right bank of the Indus apprehended that work on the K-IV project had already been initiated to supply 400 million gallons per day water to Karachi but when this project would start functioning, the fertile lands of Thatta would tern barren.

Kalri Baghar Circle Superintendent Engineer Abdul Qadir Palijo gave two major reasons behind failure to improve the feeder’s discharge capacity — the old bridge on RD 151 near Jherruck and the heavy sand dunes between RD 8 and Rd 85, apposite Nai Baran (hill torrent water route).