DADU, July 16: Officials of the Sindh irrigation department have inspected the flood-fighting mega scheme of the Federal Flood Commission along the Indus River.

A team of expert engineers of the department recently visited the damaged part of J-spur of the Indus River upstream of the Shaheed Makhdoom Bilawal bridge.

Sukkur Barrage chief engineer (irrigation) Agha Aijaz Ahmed and Rohri circle superintending engineer Ghulam Hussain Leghari led the team.

The executive engineer of the Rohri division told the team that 1,500 feet of the second arm of J-spur had been damaged in the 2005-06 flood when the river had changed its course to the western side of the Shaheed Makhdoom Bilawal bride near Dadu.

The work on the damaged part had been completed at a cost of Rs20 million.

The project was funded by the federal government to protect the bridge and Dadu city from flood.

He said that now the flow of the river would remain at old side of its bed.

The team visited another eroded part of the river along the S.M. Bund near Bhanoth.

The executive engineer of the Bhanoth division, Mr Zahid Shaikh, told the team that total 3,000feet and land was eroded by the river since 1995 to 2005-06 when the river had changed its direction towards the S.M. bund.

A scheme of flood-fighting at a cost of Rs146 millions had been started and 1,200 feet T-spur was made to make the direction of the river at same locus.

The visiting officials said that the water level was 86,000 cusecs at the upstream and 35,000 cusecs at the downstream of the Sukkur barrage.

They said that the total requirement of the Sukkur barrage was 64,000 cusecs but they were distributing 53,000 cusecs of water into canals.

They said that there was 20 per cent water shortage in the Indus River which would be eradicated within week as the water level was improving in the river.

They said that the discharge quantity of the Rice canal was 14,500 cusecs and Dadu canal was 3,100 cusecs which they had released to the canals from the Sukkur barrage.

They said that 20,000 cusecs was the discharge quantity of the Warah canal along with 6,500 cusecs of Chotiari dam but due to water shortage they were releasing only 12,500 cusecs.

They said that the discharge quantity of the NWC canal was 8,000 and they were releasing 7,900 cusecs.

In the Rohri canal they were releasing 11,900 cusecs, instead of 17,000.

They said that mobile teams were constituted to look after the distribution of water in canals of the Sukkur barrage.