BADIN: Panic and fear gripped a vast area of Badin and Tharparkar districts after a small breach in the dyke of the Left Bank Outfall Drain (LBOD) that had occurred on Tuesday widened to 70 feet wide and causing flooding in many villages over the last three days.

Residents of the villages close to the RD-283 point in Badin claimed that the breach had occurred due to immense pressure of water but the local irrigation officials ignored it as Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah was on a visit to the city that day.

Eventually, they added, the breach kept widening but no attention was paid to its plugging even the next day. As a result, they said many villages were hit by flooding and residents of the affected areas worked day and night to control the gushing deluge.

On Thursday, officials of the irrigation, Sindh Irrigation and Drainage Authority (Sida) and LBOD rushed to the site along with labourers and breach plugging material as the breach had widened to 70 feet and gushing water posed a serious threat to scores of other villages, besides hundreds of acres of farmland.

Army, Navy and police helping irrigation, Sida and LBOD officials in plugging work

Many villages falling within the Saman Sarkar and Malkani Sharif union councils were inundated and the deluge was heading towards Pir Hamid Ali Shah, Gohram Chandio, Ameer Bux Chandio, Basheer Alam Arain, Kamal Khoso Mukhtiar Gujar, Ismail Fakeer, Sadiq Chandio and other village.

Scores of families living in the affected and vulnerable villages started moving to safe places in panic while the dyke repair work was under way.

Saman Sarkar UC chairman Ali Raza Khoso sounded an alert for the area residents and advised them to move to safe places as soon as possible. He told people that the deluge was continuously gaining intensity owing to immense pressure of water in the LBOD. He warned that the deluge could hit the thickly populated Pangrio and Malkani towns. The shrine of Saman Sarkar was also vulnerable if the breach plugging work was not completed within the next 10 hours [Before Friday-Saturday midnight].

It was reported that LBOD officials failed to help plug the breach and approached the irrigation and district officials concerned for joint efforts.

Following the warning, scores of families started leaving each of the vulnerable villages along with their belongings and cattle.

Police and army also rushed to the rescue of affected villages and joined in the repair and strengthening work. According to unofficial reports, cuts were applied in the opposite dyke of the LBOD to contain pressure of water and save vulnerable villages and towns from flooding.Sindh Minister for Irrigation Sohail Ahmed Siyal, Badin Deputy Commissioner Dr Hafeez Ahmed Siyal and area water board chairman Qabool Ahmed Khatyan had visited the breach site on Wednesday to supervise the plugging work but a large portion of the plugged site was washed away again on Thursday by strong currents.

Mr Khatyan, when contacted by this reporter, said that the breach had been plugged to a great extent with the joint efforts of irrigation staff and personnel of the army, navy and police personnel. He said work to plug only 20-feet wide breach was under way.

He said LBOD was at present taking 1,300 cusecs as against its original capacity of 450 cusecs.

He said Nara Canal director Mansoor Ahmed Memon was also arriving here to assist in the plugging work.

Mr Khtyan said that water level in the drain has reached the “dangerous level” and in case more spells of rain lashed the area, more cuts in the LBOD dyke would have to be applied.

Meanwhile, the Navy has established a medical camp in Pangrio town for the displaced people.

Published in Dawn, August 29th, 2020