Floods submerge more villages

Villagers complain that irrigation officials ignored their warnings of canal breaches

HYDERABAD:

As rescue and relief operations continued in Dadu’s flooded Johi taluka on Monday, more villages were inundated by water flowing from canal breaches in other districts in Sindh.

Though the water levels began to drop, over 100 villages in Kamal Khan union council remained submerged for the third consecutive day.

The area’s MPA, Syed Saleh Shah Jeelani, said stranded villagers were being supplied edible items through helicopters, while boats were carrying food to other inundated areas. He added that they had received complaints of the unavailability of drinking water, after which water was also supplied in coolers and plastic bottles.

Meanwhile, the Edhi Foundation and Saylani Welfare Foundation also joined the rescue and relief works, while the general officer commanding Hyderabad accompanied by the divisional commissioner visited the flooded areas.

Separately, a 50-feet rupture in the Waris Dino Maachi branch flooded hundreds more acres of land and partially submerged houses in several villages in Ratodero, Larkana district. The area’s farmers claimed huge losses to their standing rice crops.

“The fissure in the branch appeared early in the morning. We immediately reported it to the irrigation officials but they did not respond,” Yasir Chandio, a local resident, told the media, adding that the villagers were trying to plug the opening themselves.

Thousands of acres of agricultural land were also flooded in Dadu district’s Seeta Road area, where two separate breaches occurred in the Kakkar branch. Area residents stated that the road links of several villages had been submerged by floodwater.

The rice crops over hundreds of acres were also reportedly destroyed in Sujawal Junejo, Qambar-Shahdadkot district, from two ruptures in a saline water channel.

Abdul Qadir Jalbani, a local farmer, complained that residents had been pointing out the weak banks in the waterway to irrigation officials for months before the breaches occurred, but to no avail. He too said that the villagers were themselves trying to fix the opening, adding that they feared there would be more breaches in the same saline channel.

Furthermore, in Jacobabad’s Garhi Khairo, an old graveyard belonging to the Hindu community was inundated by water pouring out from a breach in a minor flowing from the Begari canal.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 11^th, 2020.