Water flow rises at Sukkur, falls at Guddu

SUKKUR/HYDERABAD/ DADU: Water level at Sukkur and Kotri barrages was showing a rising trend on Tuesday while it has dropped at Guddu Barrage.

Kotri Barrage control room said that water flow at Guddu barrage upstream was recorded at 10,56,998 cusec at 8pm on Tuesday against a discharge of 10,76,728 cusec on Monday.

At Sukkur Barrage, upstream water flow was recorded at 10,21,220 cusec. At Kotri Barrage a flow of 329,907 cusec of water was recorded.

In a daily briefing at Sukkur Barrage, Sindh Irrigation Minister Jam Saifullah Dharejo ruled out possibility of any threat to Sukkur Barrage or Sukkur city, adding that there would be no need to make a breach at Ali Wahan dyke.

He said that all the right and left bank dykes were being vigilantly guarded round the clock and the assessment of flood losses will be made once the water level comes down to its pre-flood position.

He said that plenty of water had passed over to Balochistan districts of Jafferabad and Dera Allahyar thus paving way for peaceful conditions for Jacobabad and Kashmore districts.

According to him, Jacobabad and Shikarpur cities were quite safe and there was no flood threat to these towns.

However, with the passage of floodwater from Sukkur Barrage to Kotri, pressure was mounting on Naushahro, Nawabshah, Hyderabad and Thatta and Irrigation Department’s priority was to save the people of these cities, he added

Mr Dharejo said that water in huge quantity was reaching from Taunsa and Panjnand to Guddu and Sukkur Barrages, which had increased also with the latest spell of rains in the upcountry and melting of snows on the mountains.

Meanwhile, reports from Jacobabad revealed that the Shahbaz Airbase was safe. A similar situation was reported from Thull where conditions were becoming normal and people had started to return to their homes.

Meanwhile, ugly scenes are being witnessed day and night during the distribution of food at different relief camps of Sukkur and Rohri and at a number of places police used batons on camp inmates to save food being looted from the distributing vans.

There is mismanagement and lack of coordination among different tiers of administration and the result is that at some of camps cooked food does not reach in time making the people to suffer and frustrate, while at some camps food is available in excess of actual need so much so that, at sometimes the authorities had no other way to dispose it of but to throw it.

Meanwhile, an erosion of stud was reported at Bhanote bund which was denied by the assistant executive engineer Sibtain Shah. He said that some portion of small stones whose layer was pitched on the stud has fallen. He said that such layer is pitched only to beautify the stud. “Our actual stud is safe”, he said.

In Dadu district, at least 20 villages have been hit by floods while water has inundated Lal Bag area near Sehwan town and Khanpur area.

Water level at Dadu-Moro bridge rose to 132.3RL on Tuesday while it reduced from 8.3 feet to 8.0 feet at LS embankment near Dadu town. Likewise, water level at Moundar has reduced from 4.1 feet to 3.9 feet.

Leakages have been reported in RBOD-11 near Sehwan town, while flood water inundated Lal Bag area of Sehwan town. Water level rose in kutcha area of Khanpur. Allah Dino Mallah village had also been inundated forcing the people to abandon their homes and move to safe places.