LARKANA\KARACHI – Floodwaters roared towards two more small towns in Sindh on Tuesday as authorities managed to finally plug a breach in defences across the Indus River in Thatta.
The fast-moving waters that left the low-lying town of Sajawal submerged on Sunday were now threatening the towns of Jati and Choohar Jamali, where official warnings have been issued to residents to evacuate.
The floodwaters also submerged Gaji Khuhawar, a town of 50,000 population in Warrah besides more than 100 villages in District Qamber-Shahdadkot and Mehar, KN Shah and Johi talukas of District Dadu while the administration has sounded a red alert in Johi against the inundation. Floodwaters, flowing from Qamber-Shahdadkot and Qubo Saeed Khan, inundated several towns and villages and standing crops.
The embankments of FP levee along the RBOD and Main Nara Valley Drain from Shahdadkot towards District Dadu via Warrah, Nasirabad, Mehar Talukas were under constant floodwaters pressure.
Several breaches have been reported over the last two days in Qamber-Shahdakot and Dadu districts. It was also reported that armed people made breaches and scuffled with MPA Noordin Abro when he visited the area.
Floodwaters have washed away crops of cotton, banana, paddy and sugarcane standing on thousands of acres in various districts across Sindh.
The floodwaters pressure on Aqil-Aghani and Nusrat Loop, the banks of the River Indus are still intact while the water level in the Indus is gradually falling. Simultaneously, the work to strengthen the protective levee is in progress.
Meanwhile, ‘reportedly’ there was photo sessions by the Ministers, MNAs and MPAs, at large during the distribution exercise of relief items.
However, a large number of flood affectees continued to be deprived of food and other relief commodities. Non-availability of health facilities has also raised the number of women and children patients at Chandika Medical Hospital Larkana.
On Monday, dozens of flood affectees including women and children reached Larkana DCO Office and forced their entry into the DCO office and meeting/conference room. They staged a sit-in there for hours, demanding relief items and registration of genuine affected people. Staff of the DCO office ran away in haste to escape wrath of the protesters. ‘The DCO office is busy in preparing fake lists of the flood affectees which only include their favourites or party workers’, some of the protesters alleged.
Meanwhile, the Sindh Government on Tuesday said that majority of the irrigation system of the province has collapsed due to floods, which is now devastating Thatta. Flood situation will likely to continue till next 15 days below Kotri downstream.
This was stated by Sindh Minister for Irrigation Jam Saifullah Dharejo and Adviser to CM for Information Department Jameel Ahmed Soomro while addressing a Press conference at Sindh Secretariat in Karachi.
After rehabilitation of flood affectees, restructuring of the irrigation system will be the top-most priority of the govt, they added.
They, however, said that though the weather could not be predicted due to changing global warming, but cautioned people to be mentally prepared for super floods, which will persist during next four to five years.
Dharejo said that regulators of the majority canals and distributaries had been washed away or wiped out due to pressure of floodwaters.
He said the flood situation will persist for next 15 days below Kotri downstream.
He further said that rehabilitation of the displaced people was a gigantic challenge, hoping that rehabilitation process will completed within five to six months smoothly.
Irrigation Minister said that the water flow is reducing in Indus River as it was recorded at 0.554 million cusecs upstream and 0.538 million cusecs downstream at Guddu barrage, About 0.541 million cusecs upstream and 0.496 million cusecs downstream flow at Sukkur Barrage.
Dharejo said that plugging work on breach at Tori embankment in Indus River caused displacement of millions of people from Kashmore to Shahdadkot,has been started by FWO and Sindh Irrigation Department.
The FWO has assured the government that breach will be plugged within next few days, the Minister told the media persons.
However, the task to plug the MS embankment on Indus River, which caused inundation of Sujawal town in Thatta district, will also to be assigned to FWO, he added.
Agencies add: Floodwaters swept towards two small Sindh towns Tuesday as authorities managed to finally plug a breach in defences across the Indus River at nearby Thatta city.
“Thatta city has been declared safe after a breach in the river caused by floods at nearby Faqir Jo Goth village was fully plugged,” senior city official Hadi Bakhsh Kalhoro told AFP.
But he said the fast-moving waters that left the low-lying town of Sajawal submerged on Sunday were now threatening the towns of Jati and Choohar Jamali, where official warnings have been issued to residents to evacuate.
“We are making efforts to save the two towns which have a combined population of more than 100,000,” Kalhoro said, adding most had already left for safer spots.
Most people had already returned to Thatta, he said, on the western bank of the swollen Indus.
But inundated Sajawal was mostly empty on Tuesday, as water flowed down its streets and troops offloaded rubber boats from their vehicles to rescue the remaining few, an AFP reporter on the scene said.
Sindh government spokesman Jameel Soomro told AFP that 147 people had been killed in the province, mostly as a result of disease triggered by the floods, and mostly women and children.
Meanwhile, water levels are beginning to drop in Sindh as the floodwater flows down the Indus River into the Arabian Sea.