SUKKUR: All canals fed through the Sukkur Barrage were closed on Monday for annual cleaning. According to irrigation officials, the scheduled closure will remain in effect till January 15.

During the period, maintenance of installations and machinery would be undertaken along with the cleaning operation called bhal safai.

No water would flow into Rohri, Nara, Khairpur East, Khairpur West, Dadu, Rice and Khirthar canals until Jan 15, the officials said.

They acknowledged that the farming community and other users would face unavailability of water in channels during the period.

They said all users had already been advised to make some alternative arrangements to meet their requirement.

The officials said that gates of the canals would be painted to prevent them from getting rusted.

All repair works at the barrage and gates would be carried out and the riverbed would be desilted, they added.

Consumers in Sukkur and many other towns and villages surrounding it would be affec­ted by suspension of water supply. Irrigation and district adm­in­istration officials said on Mon­day that all related departments were informed of the scheduled canal closure well in advance with advice to ensure suitable alternative arrangements to ward off any trouble to consumers.

MIRPURKHAS: Nara Can­al started lowering its level on Monday following suspension of water supply from Sukkur Barrage under the scheduled annual closure for maintenance.

With the start of the closure, desilting, repairing and maintenance of canals and distributaries as well as lining work across the Nara command area was started.

Nara Canal area water board director Mansoor Ahmed Me­mon through local officials of the public health engineering and irrigation departments ensured filling of all water reservoirs to their full capacity for use during the closure period.

The reservoirs are being maintained by the board, engineers and staff concerned and, as such, water shortage in Nara’s command areas is not expected to turn acute, according to sources.

The area water board had recently taken drastic measures to stop water theft by removing suction pumps and illegal barricades/diversions from the routes of various canals.

A number of people were booked for resorting to stealing water through such practices.

Published in Dawn, January 7th, 2020