QUETTA / HYDERABAD / SUKKUR: Floodwaters invaded large swathes of Balochistan’s Jaffarabad district on Saturday morning, forcing hundreds of thousands of people to abandon their homes and seek safety under open skies.
The administration started advising people to evacuate Dera Allahyar, a town in Jaffarabad district, as breaches in a number of embankments on theIndus sent torrents of water forcing their way into Balochistan.
Officials said train services between Quetta and the rest of the country had been suspended again because of inundation of a track between Dera Allahyar and Jacobabad, Sindh.
Several villages in Bhand area of Chitin Pati were under six feet of water. Many people took shelter on rooftops.
“At least four localities in Dera Allahyar, including Bhatti colony, Shaheed Murad Jamali colony, have been submerged,” Nasirabad division Commissioner Sher Khan Bazi said, adding that dozens of mud houses were collapsed. He said the colonies had been evacuated and people shifted to Dera Murad Jamali, Sibi and other areas.
Around 80 per cent of Dera Allahyar and its surrounding areas have evacuated. However, in some areas people have refused to leave their houses despite the flood warning.
Irrigation officials said that a 10km area between the Sindh and Balochistan border was under the floodwater. “Floodwater is entering central areas of Dera Allahyar from three sides,” they added.
Sources said the Sindh irrigation authorities had on Friday late night tried to breach the Jamali bypass to divert the floodwater to Jaffarabad to save Jacobabad and other areas of the province.
They said that officials of the Sindh irrigation department and federal Sports Minister Ejaz Jakhrani along with a contingent of police and heavy machinery had come to the site to breach the bypass, but the Jaffarabad Deputy Commissioner rushed to the area and foiled the attempt.
Former prime minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali along with his armed tribesmen also reached the area. He said the Sindh government would not be allowed to divert the floodwater to Jaffarabad and any attempt in this regard would be resisted.
The local administration, police and Jamali tribesman are guarding the bypass.
According to the sources, Mr Jakhrani said that breach was necessary to save the historic town of Jacobabad and the Shahbaz airbase as the floodwater of Todi bund and Mirwah canal was threatening the area.
Deputy Commissioner Saeed Ahmed Jamali said the next 24 hours were critical for Jaffarabad.
The sources said that police and the local administration were informing people on loudspeakers about the flood and asking them to move to safe places, adding that a large number of people had abandoned their houses and were moving to Dera Murad Jamali and Sibi and Quetta.
However, the sources said, most people in Dera Allahyar had decided to stay in the town.
A large number of families have taken refuge at the Jamali bypass and along the banks of Khirtar, Pat Feeder and Rabi canals.
GUDDU BARRAGE
The water level started rising again at the Guddu barrage on Saturday after showing a receding trend over the past three days while the Kotri barrage upstream saw a surge of 13,000 cusecs.
The flow of water recorded a consistent rise at the Dadu-Moro bridge — a point between Sukkur and Kotri barrages.
According to a television report, a high flood tide coming from a breach in the Tori embankment invaded Jacobabad, where 80 per cent of the population has been evacuated.
It quoted Jacobabad DCO Kazim Jatoi as saying that water was rapidly entering Noorwah, exerting a fearsome thrust on the canal.
At the Guddu barrage, the flow upstream and downstream stood at 1,011,300 cusecs on Saturday evening. At the Sukkur barrage, upstream was 1,079,000 cusecs and downstream 976,000 cusecs.
Irrigation officials said the pressure on various embankments had started releasing and the situation was now under control. They said the flood had reached up to Larkana and would pass through the Kotri barrage within a few days.
The people affected by floods in Ghauspur and Karampur have taken shelter in relief camps set up in Kashmore, but are awaiting for relief goods and medicines. The district administration claimed that ‘treated water’ was being supplied to the affected people.
Shortages of food and medicines were reported from different villages of Ghauspur area. People are still stranded in villages of Dari, Khayas Bhayyo, Tori Bungalow, Jam Sanwaro Chachar, Dost Mohammad Sabzoi and Jangal Mirani. Fifteen people have taken shelter in a temple in Ghauspur.
Sukkur barrage’s chief engineer Haroon Memon said that late arrival of peak flow at Kotri upstream was because water had scattered in kutcha areas.
“But a peak of 700,000 to 800,000 cusecs will reach Kotri soon,” he said, adding that all main canals were getting their indented supplies.
Army officials rescued hundreds of people from kutcha areas near Bhai Khan Shobcho and Saeedabad in Matiari district, but a large number of people are still stranded in the area.
A young boy drowned near Bhanote bund in Kari Keti.
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