HYDERABAD: Left Bank Outfall Drain (LBOD) and Mirpurkhas district administration officers have expressed concern over the present state of LBOD system.

The concern was expressed by Mirpurkhas Deputy Commissioner Zahid Hussain Memon and project director (PD) drainage Zaheer Memon at a briefing to Hyderabad General Officer Commanding (GOC) Mohammad Kashif held at a relief camp set up in the degree college Jhuddo. The GOC also visited the site of breach at RD-287 before he returned to Hyderabad.

The two officers informed the GOC that problems were often reported during heavy rainfall in that system of the drain that also caused damage to property and agricultural land as well as crops. He was informed that the LBOD — built by Wapda — was currently under the Sindh irrigation department which had noted many issues in the system of drains.

The DC informed the GOC that during current rainfall, 90 per cent cotton and chilli crops had been damaged for which a proper survey was under way by the agriculture department and district administration.

He said the irrigation department claimed that the capacity of the main drain — spinal drain — of the LBOD system was 4,600 cusecs, but the drain got flows double of the actual capacity during such rainfall, considering the fact that it received rainfall runoffs from four districts, including Benazirabad, Sanghar, parts of Umerkot, Mirpurkhas and Badin.

He stated that the situation became vulnerable when those flows from drain’s catchment entered the spinal drain at RD-260, along with Puran and Hakro natural waterways. That put pressure on the drain and vulnerability increased, he added. He said that also caused breaches in the spinal drain as had happened in Badin and Naukot in August rains.

He said there was a proposal that a parallel drain should be built to offload the spinal drain and that parallel drain would carry flows of those old Hakro and Puran ‘dhoros’ (old waterways) only to enter the main drain at a safe point.

He added that with climate change threatening every region, those issues would keep cropping up and therefore there was a need for a long-term solution.

He said it obviously requires plenty of funds for addressing flaws in the entire system. He referred to 2011 breaches in the LBOD system that caused huge losses to the farm sector.

PD Memon said that despite facing serious issues, the spinal drain finally disposed of rainwater up to sea though slowly and gradually. He said that not only the spinal drain carried its own flows, but it got consistent flows from connecting branches from the catchment to take them to sea.

According to a proposal, the drain should be remodelled and its designed discharge should be increased from 4,600 cusecs to 10,000 cusecs to lessen pressure on allied/connecting drains, he said.

He asserted that in view of climate change, the drain should properly be rehabilitated so that it could offset any impact of rains in catchment area. He said that the drain was first handed over to the Sindh Irrigation and Drainage Authority (Sida) and then it was placed under the irrigation department’s administrative jurisdiction.

During this year’s rainfall, two wider breaches, one at RD-283 (Pangrio) and second at RD-287 (Naukot) upstream spinal drain, were reported, requiring lots of efforts to plug them.

RD-287 breach on the rain’s left bank was plugged after over 12 days of efforts. It affected Jhuddo and Naukot areas and water flows entered parts of Kaloi taluka in Tharparkar district.

Published in Dawn, September 16th, 2020