Larkana villages worry

LARKANA: As Sindh braces for the floods, a five-kilometre area, including three protective embankments near the River Indus, was declared sensitive.

Aqil Aghani loop embankment, Abad Manglani loop embankment that is near the Larkana-Khairpur bridge and the Gajidero embankment, near tehsil Dokri are the vulnerable points.

Till Wednesday, the water flow had damaged a 300-foot protective mud wall, which was built in front of the embankment. The damage indicates that the surrounding villages of Larkana may be at risk.

Villagers Malhar Chandio and Muhammad Ayub Aghani said that hundreds of villagers were voluntarily patrolling the embankments to check the incoming flow of water. “There are no irrigation workers patrolling at night,” they complained.

However, the irrigation department’s chief engineer Agha Aijaz said hundreds of officials, including those from the drainage division, have been ordered to position their machinery and technical staff, near the kachcha areas at each vulnerable point.

“We are ensuring vigilant patrolling and are monitoring the situation round the clock by deploying six to eight officials every mile,” he explained.

Larkana-Khairpur bridge

The chief engineer also expressed concern over the development work by the National Highway Authority, saying that the NHA did not complete its work properly when building the Larkana-Khairpur bridge. “The NHA failed to construct two spurs (steel structures used to protect river banks and divert flood water) below the bridge, which would have helped,” he said.

Answering the allegation, the NHA’s Basharat Hussain, who was the project director of the LK bridge, said the irrigation department was blaming the NHA to cover up its own mistakes.

“They have not done any de-silting for 20 years. We have completed our work,” he claimed.

The capacity of the Larkana-Khairpur  bridge is 1.3 million cusecs, so the fact that the flood peak would be 1.1 million cusecs should not threaten us, claimed NHA officials.

As this was happening, the Sindh Abadgar authorities held an emergency meeting to decry the blame game between the NHA and the irrigation department.

“This is not the time to complain. All institutions need to work together to minimise the damage,” said Chamber of Agriculture, Larkana, president Syed Siraj Rashidi, who presided over the meeting. Despite Larkana being the epicentre of the paddy crop in Sindh, irrigation officials did not do anything to strengthen the embankments, he added.

Another site, termed dangerous, is the Takhar area - its embankments are weak and will not be able to withstand the incoming water pressure. People fear that the embankments will collapse.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 5^th, 2010.