KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah said on Wednesday that 1,100 mm of unprecedented rains in the province together with about 30 MAF deluge from Balochistan’s hill torrents had wreaked havoc in the cities and towns located on both banks of Indus River.

The chief minister told a press conference at the Chief Minister’s House that the calamity had caused serious humanitarian crisis and the provincial government was making all-out efforts to rescue and rehabilitate the rain and flood victims.

Mr Shah said that in order to contain hill torrents flood protective dyke was raised by six feet after the floods of 2010 but even then, the recent flood was so high it caused five breaches into the dyke and flooded innumerable towns and villages on the right bank.

He said that major cities like Shaheed Benazirabad, Sanghar, Umerkot, Mirpurkhas and Badin were located on the left bank of the river. “Their water will be discharged into Shakoor Lake and the cities and towns located near the river will have to pump their water into the river,” he said, adding, but this would take time as the quantum of water was huge.

Flood position

The chief minister said that the river’s position at Guddu and Sukkur barrages was normal as high flood was passing through the barrages and the discharge was continuously declining.

Comparing the water discharge at Kotri barrage for the last two days, he said that its flow was 575,435 cusecs upstream and 555,185 downstream which showed a decline of 50,759 cusecs on Sept 13. “Similarly, the Kotri barrage was flowing at 525,696 downstream and 508,981 upstream (on Sept 14) which has shown a decline of 100,497,” he added.

Murad Ali Shah shared the details of the current situation of inundation on the right bank of Sukkur barrage and said the water level had reduced by around two feet at Mehar town’s ring dyke and K.N. Shah’s main drain flowing in MNVD and there was a reduction of two feet.

He said that the water level had also reduced by one foot at the ring dyke round Bhan Syedabad – the overall water level was depleting in the upper areas of Qubo Saeed Khan, Shahdadkot, Kambar, Warah, Nasirabad talukas.

Manmade breaches

Shah said that the decision to breach an embankment was made in consultation with irrigation experts, top engineers of the Army Corps, and even retired irrigation chief engineers.

“The so-called experts on social and mainstream media are making baseless statements about such breaches,” he said and added that the provincial government had tried to divert floodwaters to Katcha areas in order to protect the Pacca areas.

“The decisions might have some mistakes but were taken after proper consultation with experts and with utmost sincerity,” he said.

Efforts on to salvage rice crop

The chief minister said that paddy was sown over an area of 1,487,870 acres, of which 1,063,273 or 71.46 per cent had been damaged. “I am trying to protect the crops still standing over an area of 52,100.37 acres by providing them water,” he said and added that he had directed the irrigation department to open the Rice Canal, NW Canal, and other connected branches to provide water to the rice crop.

CM justifies high wheat support price

Talking about Rs4,000 per 40 kg wheat support price, the chief minister said that the wheat shortage was looming large all over the world. “The Russian-Ukraine war is bound to create wheat shortage because they are the largest wheat exporters,” he said and added the price which was Rs9,000 per bag for imported wheat would go further to Rs12,000 per bag. “This incentive of Rs4,000 per 40 kg would encourage the growers to grow more wheat so that local needs could be met,” he concluded.

Published in Dawn, September 15th, 2022