Hill torrents, drains inundate more areas

Locals say 90% of Sujawal Junejo town under water

HYDRABAD:

Heavy floods following record rains continue to inundate more towns and villages breaking dams and embankments that come on the way.

After flooding Khairpur Nathan Shah town of Dadu district, the gushing hill torrents and overflowing the saline drains deluged Sujawal Junejo town of Kambar-Shahdadkot district besides keeping Mehar town of Dadu under threat of flooding.

The local people claim that 90% of Sujawal Junejo town has gone under water.

Three seasonal streams, including Haider Chandio, Tayyab and Zakaria, in which water is flowing from Jacobabad and Shikarpur districts, spilled over and developed breaches. The local people blamed the district administration and the irrigation authorities for their sluggish response to the situation.

By Thursday afternoon, the flood was also moving towards Shahdadkot. The administration, in order to prevent flooding of villages, made three breaches on Kambar-Larkana Road and two at Garhi Khairo Road to allow the floodwater to flow on its natural path. However, the breaches severed road link between Shahdadkot and Balochistan.

Separately, six breaches occurred near the Zero Point in Manchar Lake, further increasing the water level in already flooded villages.

“The situation of the bank is getting worse but the authorities are nowhere to be seen,” bemoaned Azizullah Jamali, a former union council chairman of the area.

He warned, if the Main Nara Valley (MNV) drain also breaks near lake’s zero point, hundreds of villages of Bhan Saeedabad taluka will go under water.

Sindh Irrigation Minister Jam Khan Shoro has denied that any cuts have been made in Manchar to reduce pressure from the MNV drain which empties in the lake, carrying water from parts of Balochistan and Larkana division besides Dadu district.

He informed that the water level of the torrents coming from Balochistan has also receded by three to four feet.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 2^nd, 2022.