Five UCs, fuel pipelines face flood threat

DADU: A 400-foot “controlled cut” was made in a dyke at Dadu’s Bagh-i-Yousuf on Wednesday to reduce water level in Manchhar lake.

The breach between RD-11 and 12 was made after water level in the lake rose to 121.5RL and overtopped at RD-96, 97, 98, 99 and 100.

Irrigation officials made the cut to drain 250,000 cusecs of water from the lake into the Indus through Karampur. About 15,000 cusecs was flowing into the river through Aral canal.

Up to 40,000 cusecs was flowing into Manchhar from the Main Nara Valley drain.

The heavy flow caused leakages in the lake’s dyke at Zero Point.

The cut will inundate the Dal, Pakka Channa, Talti and Bubak union councils.

The Jamshoro district administration alerted people of Dal area before breaching the dyke, but did not inform the residents of Pakka, Talti and Bubak.

About 250,000 people will be affected by the breach and Bakhtiarpur, Arazi and Talti towns in Sehwan taluka will be inundated.

People started vacating villages in the area, but faced a shortage of vehicles.

The waters diverted through the cut will pass over the Jamshoro-Larkana section of the Indus Highway and railway tracks at different places.

PIPELINES: The floodwaters may damage four pipelines of Parco and the SSGC and submerge an oil station in Bubak and the Shahbaz airport in Sehwan.

The main valve and two high pressure pipelines of the SSGC and two of Parco were under threat.

SSGC Chief Engineer Kazi Anwar Keerio said that since the pipelines supplying petrol from Karachi to Faisalabad and gas to Karachi / Hyderabad were three kilometres from the breach, these were likely to be affected. Dadu SSGC Senior Manager Mumtaz Bughio said the pipelines would be damaged if the valve was affected, leading to suspension of gas supply to a number of towns from Sehwan to Karachi.

Hyderabad GOC Maj-Gen Shaukat Iqbal told reporters at the breach site that the step had been taken to reduce the water level in Manchhar and pressure on its embankments because breaches in them could inundate Bhan Syedabad and other towns.

Jamshoro DCO Samiuddin Siddique claimed that a warning had been issued to people of Bhan, Bubak, Dal and Talti and the administration was helping them leave the area. But people were reluctant to move to camps because arrangements had not been made for their animals.

The administration and Wapda have decided to raise the height of the Indus link canal’s embankment to protect Bhan Syedabad.

Former UC nazim Roshan Buriro said the town was under threat of flooding from the MNV drain and Manchhar lake, but the administration had not provided transport to local people to leave the area.

The flow in the drain at Chhandan near Dadu remained dangerous, while the water level rose along the Johi and Mehar embankments.