KARACHI, Aug 5: A serious threat to the Sukkur Barrage has been averted despite two years' delay in repairing a cavity which had developed in the span of its two gates, a British expert told Dawn on Thursday.

A team of British experts, led by engineer Martin Airey, visited the barrage on Wednesday to inspect the cavity and efforts being made to repair it. The team is likely to submit its report on the quality of the repairs to the Sindh government soon.

Sindh Irrigation and Power Minister Sardar Nadir Akmal Khan Leghari on Thursday presided over a meeting held to review the progress in the repair work. Mr Airey, a representative of Mott MacDonald, a firm with expertise in bridges and barrages, attended the meeting.

Mr Leghari told newsmen during a break in the meeting that President Gen Musharraf had taken notice of the cavity when former president Sardar Farooq Leghari told him about the threat to the barrage.

The minister said the problem had surfaced in January 2002 but the officials concerned failed to bring it to the knowledge of higher authorities. Nadir Leghari, who heads a committee constituted by the chief minister to take action against people responsible for the lapse, said an irrigation engineer from Dera Ghazi Khan, Dr Bagh Ali, had brought the issue to the notice of Farooq Leghari and told him that the cavity posed a serious threat to the project on which the agriculture of Sindh depended.

He said teams from the General Headquarters, the Water and Power Development Authority and the Engineering Council had visited the barrage and submitted their reports. He said the British team had been invited for the same purpose.

In reply to a question, he said silt had not been removed properly, which put pressure on the gate No.1, where the cavity was found. He said the repair work was being carried out by methods recommended by a technical committee earlier formed by the chief minister.

The minister directed the adviser to the department, Khadim Hussain Memon, to provide the technical committee's report to journalists but the official did not respond when called.

In reply to a question, Mr Airey said emergency measures were being taken to carry out repairs and his initial assessment was that now there was no threat to the barrage. He said he would send a detailed report to the government from London. He is leaving for Britain on Friday.

In reply to a question, he said the issue of making the report public depended on the Sindh government. According to the report, the ditch caused by negligence was 80-foot long, 120-foot wide and 19-foot deep. The Sukkur Barrage, built in 1932, irrigates more than eight million acres in Sindh.