DADU: The Sim Nullah could no longer withstand mounting pressure of floodwaters gushing from Manchhar Lake and Main Nara Valley Drain breaches and developed a 100-foot wide breach between Manhyon and Samtani villages near Bhan Syedabad town on Thursday, inundating more areas in Talti and Bhambha union councils in Sehwan taluka.

PPP MNA Sardar Sikandar Ali Rahpoto said that the water from the saline water drain’s breach was fast moving to villages as people made frantic efforts to evacuate from the area.

He said that the lake’s floodwater had so far flooded over 450 villages in seven union councils and now the water from the 500-foot wide breach in MNVD was rapidly moving to Bhan Syedabad and Khudabad towns. Over 70 per cent of the population of Bhan Syedabad had already shifted their families to Sehwan and other towns for fear of impending deluge, he said.

Breach in MNVD dyke plugged

The MNVD dyke developed a 50-foot breach at Satin Shakh and heavy flow of water had started to gush through it but before the breach could widen and pose serious danger to the city the administration took timely action and managed to plug it.

MNA Rafiq Jamali, MPA Barri­ster Pir Mujeebul Haq and deputy commissioner Syed Murtaza Ali Shah rushed to the place along with machinery and a large number of labourers and succeeded to avert the danger.

The DC said the breach developed from a leakage at a small bridge.

Work begins on raising dyke near Dadu

Work on raising embankment of Pir Shakh has been started to avert the impending danger of deluge that may hit Dadu city after flooding Bhan Syedabad, according to MPA Haq.

He said that there was a clear and present danger of the deluge from floodwaters of Manchhar Lake and MNVD, hence the work of raising the embankment of the water channel had been started.

CM wants flood victims shifted from LS bund

Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has said the district administration has been asked to shift flood victims from Larkana-Sehwan dyke before a decision is taken to breach the dyke to divert floodwaters to Indus River.

He told reporters during a visit of Sehwan on Thursday that water level had slightly reduced in the river near Sehwan and if they breached the LS dyke to divert the lake water into the river it might raise its level.

He said that after technical team decided about the breach it would be made tonight as they feared the river water might rise and start to flow back.

Work begins to breach LS dyke

Amid tight security of Rangers’ personnel, the officials of irrigation department and Jamshoro district administration began work to breach the LS dyke at RD-99 in Karampur near Sehwan with the help of heavy machinery to divert Manchhar Lake’s floodwaters into Indus.

Jamshoro DC Fareeduddin Mustafa told Dawn that they had tried to bring down the lake to a maximum level before diverting it to Indus which had dropped one and a half foot that day.

Published in Dawn, September 9th, 2022