Sanghar desperately tries to drain MA Jinnah Road - only to have more water flow in

A week in and barely 25% of commercial activity has been restored on roads.

HYDERABAD: Sanghar remains underwater with no immediate signs of a drop in the water level. The government’s efforts to drain the district, meanwhile, are being met with suspicion by the business community.

Eid, on August 30, brought with it a second spell of monsoon rains that left the cotton-rich district under several feet of water. The authorities are now faced with the knotty situation of draining out that water. Their solution - an improvised drain dug along the city’s trade centre on MA Jinnah Road.

The drain — about 500 metres long, six foot deep and four foot wide — is meant to draw water from the district and direct it towards a natural route to the Left Bank Outfall Drain (LBOD), explained the town municipal administrator, Maluk Khaskheli. “It will pump (water) off towards the Sanghar-Khairpur square. From that point, the water will flow over the agricultural fields towards the LBOD.”

Khaskheli explains that a pump, 12 inches in diameter has been installed to suck out water from MA Jinnah Road while other areas still await their pumps.

Issues arise, however, when you take into account the fact that MA Jinnah Road has a number of shops located all along it. Liaquat Market, Saeed Market, Shahi Bazaar, Nawabshah Road, Thana Road are markets that sell everything from agricultural inputs and goods to grocery, jewellery, cosmetics and medical stores.

The business community considers the plan ineffective. “They dug the ditch on Saturday and, by that evening, the process of sucking water out began. Yet, almost two days into it, we still find our legs in as much water as they were then,” bemoans Malik Sher Muhammad, senior vice president of the Sanghar Chamber of Commerce.

He highlighted a number of reasons for the plan’s failure. “While they try to drain out water from MA Jinnah Road, the water from the surrounding areas pours in onto the road. Besides, the LBOD is flowing to its full capacity and may not even take more water.”

For Muhammad, any efforts towards drainage should include pumping water from all connected areas simultaneously. “Our delegation called on the DCO a day ago and we asked him to throw water into the Bhan Distributary which is empty. But our advice has not been followed,” he said, taking a jab at the lack of official coordination between the district administration and business community.

The chamber’s Haji Yameen Qureshi, who trades crops and runs a shop on the road, accuses the municipal administration of procrastination. “It has been over two weeks since it last rained. The work which should have taken place then still lacks a sense of direction.”

Qureshi, like Muhammad, also objects to the diversion of water towards the LBOD but suggests that it should be towards Ghaat Parah, which, according to him, is a natural drain. “They need to understand the city’s geography first before making a move.”

Two years ago, the former Sanghar nazim laid a new sewerage system in the area. However, the lines have become choked with sludge.

Apart from traders, the agriculturalists, whose crops lie ruined under several feet of water, wonder when they will be able to plough their lands again.

“The coming days (look bleak for the growers) if urban areas on higher grounds find it difficult to create an outlet for water,” remarked Hassan Askari, the Sindh Small Growers Association general secretary.

Sanghar, the country’s top cotton producer, expected to harvest four million bales this year from over 360,000 acres sown. But floods in the irrigation channels have drowned that prospect along with the city itself.

Askari said that he heard an irrigation official say that the quantity of floodwater in Sanghar is equal to the water table in the Mangla Dam. “Until the districts above Sanghar are emptied of water, and drains in Badin carry that water to the sea, Sanghar will remain underwater.”

Published in The Express Tribune, October 3^rd, 2011.