Floods submerge more villages in Bugti Agency

QUETTA: Flash floods hit the Bugti Agency, overflowing the banks of Pat Feeder and Rabi canals, submerging several more villages in Dera Murad Jamali on Friday.

The Rabi Canal was breached at two places, forcing the nearby population to take shelter elsewhere.

As canal breaches and flash floods combined, a wall of water gushed towards Tambo tehsil, where an influential personality reportedly blocked the passage of flood waters at Bedar, threatening to submerge Dera Murad Jamali.

The blockage was removed by personnel of Balochistan Levies after hundreds of protesters besieged the offices of the irrigation department’s executive engineer, forcing him to reopen the blockage, saving Dera Murad Jamali from a major humanitarian disaster.

The unprecedented flood in the Kachhi and Sibi plains also posed a serious threat to the Uch power plant.

People breached the Righ Bank Outfall Drain in an effort to divert the extraordinary pressure of flood, saving Dera Allah Yar, another major city in this division.

People in eastern Balochistan who were contacted over phone said that they had been marooned for the past several days and had not received any help.

Flash floods, they said, had devastated more than 40,000 square miles in eastern Balochistan and fresh rains were further aggravating the situation.

In Suhbatpur, hundreds of houses collapsed during torrential rains which lashed the entire area for four days. A large number of people have also been marooned here.

Water overflow from the Pat Feeder Canal is aggravating the flood situation in various areas of Naseerabad, including Sohbatpur.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 7^th, 2010.