Canal breach floods villages, crops
Villagers desperately try to stem the rushing waters after a breach in the Phuleli Canal flooded vast stretches of agricultural land. Using makeshift tools and mud, they work to protect their crops and homes from further devastation as water continues to surge through the broken embankment. PHOTO: APP
With the monsoon season being on the horizon, breaches in the embankments of waterways have already started. Almost half a dozen villages and hundreds of acres of agricultural land went under water in Seri town of Hyderabad on Monday by water gushing out from a breach in New Phuleli canal.
However, no casualty was reported in the aftermath and no livestock animals reportedly perished. The canal, an official of Sindh Irrigation and Drainage Authority (SIDA) informed, was flowing at a high level of over 15,000 cusecs when the incident transpired, damaging properties, assets and crops.
According to a report shared by the district administration after the visit of Deputy Commissioner Zainul Abedin Memon, the rupture widened to between 40 to 50 feet when the plugging exercise started. The location of the opening was RD-122 in Deh Lakhi Keti, taluka Latifabad.
An official of Rescue 1122 informed that the levee ruptured in the village Noorai Sharif. The water later flooded Kumon Kambrani, Kamdar Mallah, Laung Mallah and other villages as well. Standing crops on hundreds of acres of land were inundated with villages giving an image of a sea with land submerged as far as the human eyes can see.
An official of SIDA, who requested anonymity, disclosed that the exercise of closing the breach started after the sunset because the local people wanted time for water to reverse flow back in the canal.
According to him, the canal's water level was dropped by several thousand cusecs after the rupture which allowed the reverse flows.
The official told that the canal underwent rehabilitation from 2015 to 2018 but the focus of the works were the hydrological structures and the adjoining embankments. According to him, the RD-122 was a katcha [mud reinforced] levee.
The SIDA is yet to conduct an inquiry into the cause of the breach. The local people told the media that they pointed out weakness in the embankment several times to the lower officials of the authority.
Meanwhile, the district administration and the Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (HMC) mobilised staff to kick-start dewatering operations. Rescue 1122 teams also came along with boats to rescue any marooned people.