Inundated: Winter floods submerge some katcha areas

Standing wheat and other crops affected

SUKKUR: Some of the katcha [riverine] areas in upper Sindh have been inundated due to what is said to be ‘winter floods’, adversely affecting the standing wheat and other crops.

The water level in River Indus went up due to the recent heavy rains in the catchment areas. Standing wheat and other crops spread over hundreds of acres were completely damaged due to unexpected rise in the water level in the river on Monday night. The affected areas are Deh Bhunar in Kandhkot and Deh Noor Jo Katcho, Deh Sundrani, Deh Jagan, Deh Jagir and others of the Ghotki district.

The peak flood season in Sindh is spread over three months — July, August and September — after which the river starts receding, leaving fertile land for the peasants to sow various crops. Like every year, the people living in the katcha area had sown wheat and other crops in the month of October. Now, when the time came to reap the crop, the abrupt rise in River Indus has taken their hard work down.

Confirming the rise in the water level in River Indus, Sukkur Barrage control room in-charge Abdul Aziz Soomro told The Express Tribune that it was because of the recent heavy rainfall in the catchment areas. “The Rabi crop is almost ready and we do not need water for irrigation purpose immediately,” he said. “Therefore, we have asked the authorities to slash down the release of water to our barrages.”

According to him, the pond level at Tarbela Dam was 1,438.75 feet on Tuesday with an inflow of 19,200 cusecs and outflow of 15,000 cusecs. At Guddu Barrage, the upstream was 110,924 cusecs and the downstream was 107,349 cusecs. At Sukkur Barrage, the upstream was 101,807 cusecs and the downstream was 76,632 cusecs, while at Kotri Barrage, the upstream was 33,240 cusecs and the downstream was 8,385 cusecs.

“Normally, water is not released in the Kotri downstream at this time of the year,” he said. “But due to the abrupt rise in the river, water is being released in the downstream.”

Published in The Express Tribune, March 11^th, 2015.