Rain lashes several districts

In Hyderabad, Chehlum procession participants wade through rainwater

HYDERABAD:

Another spell of monsoon lashed several districts of Sindh on Monday with Pakistan Meteorological Department recording highest precipitation in parts of Tharparkar district which received up to 47 millimetres of rain.

The system entering Sindh from Rajhistan, India, also dumped rain on Umerkot, Mirpurkhas, Tando Allahyar, Hyderabad, Dadu, Benazirabad, Badin and other districts.

The rain brought roads in the urban towns under ankle deep water while the low-lying areas, particularly villages, were inundated in still deeper water.

While the desert areas of Tharparkar relished the downpour that would help farmers plant lentils and vegetable besides fatten the livestock with wild grass, people on the west bank of the Indus were afraid of flood. The torrents sweeping down from hills have filled the Manchar Lake in Dadu and the Indus River, already swollen by rains in the upcountry, is not taking in more water.

The level of the Indus River near parts of Dadu districts continues to rise. The river is already not accepting water from Manchar Lake due to high riverine discharge while the lake itself is also continuously being filled by Main Nara Valley Drain (MNVD) and the hill torrents from Khirthar mountain range.

Dozens of villages built illegally in the riverbed have already gone under water in Dadu. Crops of thousands of acres of the encroached land of the river have also been washed away. Dadu Awami Forum, a group of local activists, has announced a sit-in protest outside the district's irrigation office on August 27. The activists blame the irrigation officers for their indifference towards the people who get affected by flooding every other year.

The farmers in Tando Allahyar claimed to have suffered losses to their cotton crops cultivated on thousands of acres. In separate incidents of falling of motorcycles due to gusts at least nine people were reportedly injured in the same district. Similar reports surfaced from other districts. The rainfall continued sporadically through the evening.

The chehlum processions were also taken out during rain and the mourners were seen wading through water even in the cities like Hyderabad. As usual, the power outages immediately ensued and Hyderabad Electric Supply Company (HESCO) did not bother to ensure uninterrupted supply to its consumers in view of the chehlum mourning processions and majalis.