After the monsoon rains earlier triggered displacement across Sindh’s districts, hundreds of thousands of people residing in riverbed areas have also been forced to leave their homes as a high-level flood passes through the Guddu Barrage.
Visiting both the Guddu Barrage and the Sukkur Barrage on Monday, Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah said that 514,000 cusecs of water carried by the Indus River was passing through the former in high flood, while 422,155 cusecs had been recorded at the latter. Meanwhile, the Kotri Barrage, which is the last engineering structure on the Indus River before it flows into the sea, saw almost 200,000 cusecs of water on the day.
As much as 600,000 cusecs of water is expected to pass through the river this season, as a heavy flow of water rushes towards Sindh after torrential rains in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab and India.
The CM also carried out an aerial review of the river, the barrages and the embankments. He informed the media that committees had been formed for the day-to-day monitoring of the river embankments from Guddu to Kotri. He added that these committees will be headed by the provincial ministers and MPAs of the ruling party.
“We have already declared 20 districts in Sindh as calamity hit after the monsoon rains and we pray that the flood passes through the river without causing any further damage,” said Shah. Listing the names of several levees that had either been damaged or put under severe pressure during the super-flood that hit Sindh in 2010, he went on to say that the ongoing flood was unlikely to result in a similar situation.
Expressing wonder that the national media remained preoccupied with the urban flooding that occurred in Karachi during the record-breaking monsoon rainfall this year, he pointed out that parts of rural Sindh had witnessed greater devastation and were once again faced with the threat of another flood as well. “Hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced by flash floods in rural Sindh [this year],” he deplored.
He recalled that in the aftermath of torrential rains in 2011, which had led to similar destruction, the media had descended on Sindh’s rural districts. “The rain has caused heavy losses in Karachi too, but the media should not neglect the other parts of the province,” he admonished.
According to the CM, a law and order situation had arisen during the rehabilitation work at the New Torhi embankment in Kandhkot. However, he added, the area police had been directed to immediately provide security at the work site.
Furthermore, he gave assurances that the people displaced from the riverbed areas would be provided relief support.
Bilawal visits Mirpurkhas
Meanwhile, Pakistan Peoples Party’s chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari arrived in Mirpurkhas on Monday evening for a three-day visit to the rain-affected areas, landing at the Sindhri airbase. During his stay he will also visit parts of Umerkot and Sanghar districts to assess relief measures and the havoc wreaked by the rain.
Area residents told the media that a tent city, with 40 tents, had been pitched overnight at the Sindhri road ahead of Bilawal’s visit.
With the people displaced and affected by the rain complaining about the lack of relief aid provided by the provincial government, protests have erupted in several districts of Sindh.
Flood warning
On Friday, the Pakistan Meteorological Department had issued a flood warning for parts of Sindh. According to the advisory, the Indus River is likely to attain high flood levels at Guddu on Tuesday and Wednesday, while the same is likely to be witnessed at Sukkur on Wednesday and Thursday.
Under this scenario, the PMD added, low-lying and katcha areas could be inundated. Consequently, the Met Office advised all relevant authorities to remain on alert and take the necessary precautions.
Earlier, in August, rainfall in Sindh had triggered canal breaches that led to flooding in several districts of the province, inundating scores of villages and destroying vast swathes of standing crops.
In Dadu, Jacobabad, Shikarpur, Sukkur, Ghotki, Mirpurkhas and other districts, thousands of villagers found themselves stranded as the floodwater swept away their houses, their crops and their livestock. Relief operations by the Pakistan Army and the Pakistan Navy have continued.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 8th, 2020.
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