THE road to Sukkur Barrage has been closed to the public since June 20, when two of its historic gates were severely damaged, with one even being washed away by the surging waters of the Indus.

Under the oppressive summer sun, we made our way to the barrage earlier this week, as labourers worked to raise the D-shaped cofferdam — a structure designed to keep the construction area dry.

A group of young divers stands ready in the waters downstream of the barrage. They are on board their boat, ready to jump into the river. Cranes hoist massive bags of earth — weighing over two tonnes — which are guided by these divers to their precise location before the machine operators are signaled to drop them into the river.

It is a painstaking task, by no means free of risk. As I watch, one of the divers standing downstream of Gate 47 is nearly swept away by the powerful currents of the Indus. Being an experienced hand, he manages to steady himself and swim back to the boat before carrying on with the day’s work.

In addition to gates 44 and 47, recent inspections have discovered damage to at least five other gates of the barrage, which require the installation of fishplates to cover cracks

Meanwhile, a caisson gate, which will temporarily replace the damaged Gate 47, slowly makes its way towards Gate 47. This will serve as a stopgap to prevent further damage to the barrage while the engineering works at the Karachi Shipyard build a proper replacement.

The massive monolith has been readied, manoeuvred by tugboats. It is a delicate process.

“It can’t be rushed like a ship,” Zarif Khero, the Sindh secretary of irrigation, explains. “If it hits the barrage [or its piers], it could cause severe damage.”

Operating the tugboats requires the water level to rise to a certain point, so they can float to the desired location. Once the caisson gate reaches the nose of the relevant pier, whatever is left of Gate 47 will be dismantled and pulled out of the water.

Sindh Irrigation Minister Jam Khan Shoro, who has also been examining work on the site, is hopeful that the repair work will be completed within eight days, when normal barrage operations would be able to resume.

The British-built Sukkur Barrage is a lifeline for Sindh’s agricultural sector, feeding seven major canals — a rarity even in Pakistan’s extensive irrigation network. It is considered the jugular vein for farming in the region, enabling the production of exportable rice crops in upper Sindh and irrigating the lower lands on the left bank, which yield cash crops such as sugarcane, cotton and wheat, as well as an abundance of mangoes and bananas.

“It’s a huge disaster for the farming sector. Farmers are genuinely worried indeed”, observes Pritam Das, a senior engineer and member of the technical inquiry committee looking into the issue. But he was hopeful that due to their quick response, a crisis could be averted.

Once the caisson gate and cofferdam are in place, normal water flows can be ensured in the canals, says Mr Khero, the irrigation secretary.

Meanwhile, Gate 44, which also suffered some damages, is being attended to by a Chinese firm, under a World Bank-funded project.

Under the advice of Chinese experts, a supporting buttress is also being added to Gate 44, a feature not included in the original 1932 design.

Recent inspections have also revealed damage to five other gates; 46, 48, 52, 53 and 54, which would require immediate attention. We are told that fish plates are being added to cover hairline cracks in these gates.

These gates will also be replaced by the Chinese as part of project. Earlier, the same team had installed a replacement at Gate 36 on June 2, 2023, which is currently undergoing trial runs.

This is not the first time the barrage has had to undergo repairs; in fact, the gates of the erstwhile Lloyd Barrage have seen three major rounds of repairs.

In Dec 1982, Gate 31 was damaged, but it was quickly replaced by Gate 10, one of ten gates (out of 66, in all) that had been closed since the 1930s on technical grounds.

As per a presentation, shown to me by an irrigation official, a study conducted by an international firm revealed that around 56 gates were replaced between 1987-92.

Then, in June 2018, it was Gate 39’s turn to see major damage. Another study at the time showed the need to replace six gates (31, 33, 34, 35, 39 & 40). These were replaced between 2021-22 by the Karachi Shipyard and Engineering Works.

The entire exercise of replacing the gates of Sukkur Barrage is being executed under the Sindh Barrages Improvement Programme (SBIP), funded by a Rs74.6bn World Bank loan, with a share from the Sindh government as well.

But there is no escaping the fact that the barrage is getting older and more vulnerable to wear and tear. Its age also throws up new challenges for its operations, for which authorities have to come up with innovative solutions.

Published in Dawn, June 29th, 2024