HYDERABAD, Nov 29: Ordinary residents of Badin district whose lives and properties have been periodically affected by the Left Bank Outfall Drain have urged the government to involve locals in decisions about the drain, without which it would not be able to arrive at right conclusions.

They said that locals' input was all the more essential in the wake of recent disaster caused by heavy rains and breaches in the LBOD.

Addressing a seminar on “Causes of damage and disaster in Badin” organised by the Laar Humanitarian Development Programme (LHDP), the speakers who were from the union councils of Badin which were severely hit by heavy rains, said the authorities never bothered to consult locals.

Prof Ismail Kumbhar who was part of a study on the LBOD carried out in 1997 shared findings of the study with participants and said people were bearing the brunt of poor planning and design faults in the LBOD.

The Right Bank Outfall Drain (RBOD) would also have serious repercussions in future on the right bank of the Indus, he warned.

People had also expressed serious reservations over Kadhan-Pateji Outfall Drain (KPOD) and Dhoro Puran Outfall Drain (DPOD), he said.

The LBOD, he said, was designed to reclaim 1.2 million acres of land in Sanghar and Mirpurkhas districts but the project backfired. Its tidal link was washed away in 1999 followed by Cholri Weir.

He said that Nareri Lake, a Ramsar site in the Indus delta, was destroyed but authorities remained unmoved despite hue and cry by people affected in 1999 cyclone and 2003 rains.

He cited a World Bank inspection panel's observation, which had admitted design faults in the LBOD. Funds for LBOD's upkeep were not utilised and the drain's bed was not cleansed of weeds, he said.

Mr Kumbhar said that people wanted to know what was being done under a master plan for a drainage network along the left bank of the river.

He disputed authorities' claim that LBOD had withstood a flow of 20,000 cusecs of water against its designed capacity of 4,600 cusecs and said that the drain's banks needed to be strengthened.

A farmer Ahmed Ali Jamali said that a system like that of LBOD was needed but not at the cost of people. Saline water should be taken to the sea but communities living along the drain should not be disturbed. “It is a question of our survival. Rights organisations should take notice of it,” he said.

He said the damage caused by the drain over the years had made 45 species of cattle and 30 of insects extinct. LBOD was a demon that was killing people again and again, he said.

Sindh National Front leader Ayub Shar said the government had done nothing for people displaced by rains. Foreign funds received for providing relief to rain victims should be spent under a check and balance system, he advised.

Peasants' leader Punhal Sario proposed that authorities could discuss proposal for treating LBOD's water with stakeholders in each district it passed through.

Saleh Soomro who works with Loius Burger consultancy firm which was working on a master plan for left bank area's drainage system said his firm was discussing proposals for installing gates near the KPOD to contain backflow of tide to reduce pressure on LBOD.

He said that Cholri Weir fiasco created a serious problem while Tidal Link allowed sea intrusion and thing went beyond control, he said, adding that lakes in the area were to be rehabilitated. The surface drain's water had less effluent content and could be used for irrigating land, he said.

The managing director of the Sindh Irrigation and Drainage and Authority, Ehsan Leghari, said that LBOD could not be redesigned because people of Badin would feel it would lead to more serious consequences after redesign.

“The LBOD has a design fault that allows sea intrusion and it has less capacity than what is needed,” he claimed.

Under a short-term plan the government would rehabilitate old and natural routes of drainage and an anti-encroachment law was on the anvil to do away with encroachments along the routes of old waterways, he said.

He admitted that areas like Tando Mitha Khan, Samaro, Jhando Mari, Jhuddo, Pangrio and Kaloi were still under rainwater. “LBOD's banks will be strengthened and bed will be cleansed to increase its capacity,” he said.