Encroachers prevent fortification of river embankment, putting residents of Latifabad at risk

Two seminaries and shanty settlements are built in the waterway.

HYDERABAD: About 21 months after the waters burst through the waterways, almost the entire 30-kilometre-long levee of the Indus River’s left embankment was repaired and reinforced to withstand a super flood - if it comes this year.

The whole tract from Ghalyan, in Hyderabad’s rural taluka, to the far ends of Latifabad taluka has been fortified and raised to 35 feet. However, work on a two-kilometre stretch between Giddu Bund and Latifabad Unit No.4, a densely populated area, could not be completed because of encroachment.

According to the director of Left Bank Canal Area Water Board, Syed Aijaz Shah, the work could not be completed because people had come and settled in the encroached land. “The people had even encroached upon the front and back slopes of the levees in the area.”

The encroachments which prevented the fortification work include two seminaries, cattle pens, more than 100 bungalows and shanty settlements.

In 2010, Latifabad’s units 4, 3, 2 and Hussainabad, where the Giddu Bund is located, were among the most vulnerable areas because they were not protected by a loop embankment unlike the rest of the city. To make matters worse, the geographical position of these areas also puts them at greater risk.

MPA Raza Haroon paid a visit to the area on Tuesday and expressed his dissatisfaction with the work.

He said that FIRs will be registered against the squatters and blamed the previous governments for allowing them to settle here. However, the district administration has not even counted the number of people living there, let alone calculating the cost of resettling them.

But the Hyderabad division commissioner Ahmed Bux Narejo reassured that the administration was negotiating with the people when he was asked about the delay.

He voiced hope that the land will be vacated soon.

But unfortunately, this two-kilometre stretch of the levee cannot even be strengthened before the upcoming monsoon. The Sindh Irrigation and Drainage Authority (SIDA) has written to the Sindh government to allocate funds before the times from funding by the Asian Development bank lapse. “But like in 2010, we have to hope that the river bank survives the onslaught of there is flooding this year,” said Aijaz Shah.

Sindh Fisheries Minister Zahid Bhurgari, who inspected the entire 30-kilometres length of the left embankment on Tuesday blamed the previous governments for allowing electricity, gas and water connections to these areas. He alleged that these governments connived with the squatters to occupy the riverbed.

“The Hyderabad Development Authority (HDA) even allowed a residential scheme to be built on the riverbed.” He said that there are around 200 houses in that scheme.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 6^th, 2012.