Hyderabad sitting duck, warn irrigation officials

Despite threats of water entering Hyderabad from August 16 to 18, most residents are content with the air of calm.

HYDERABAD: Despite tangible threats of water entering Hyderabad city from August 16 to 18, most residents are content with the air of calm and normalcy prevalent there.

Irrigation officials are anxiously keeping track of water levels at Sukkur Barrage. They fear that if more than 1,200,000 cusecs of water pass through, the barrage might not be able to hold it anymore.

Moreover, Kotri Barrage is in worse shape, barely able to carry 800,000 cusecs of water, explained Muhammad Aziz, an official at the barrage. It is very likely that the barrage will overflow and water will go rushing towards the main city, he added.

However, all is calm in Hyderabad.

“There hasn’t been a flood here yet,” maintained PTCL employee Ali Raza, “And I don’t think there will be one. Kotri Barrage is strong enough.” Similarly, Aliya, who works at the city district government Hyderabad office, feels that if there had been a tangible threat, the district administration would have warned people by now.

Shamiullah, a driver in Hyderabad, confirmed that residents have received no news from the district government. However, the lapse in communication between irrigation officials, district administration and residents might prove fatal.

No relief camps have been set up in Hyderabad, except for Sheedi Goth, one of the few areas in the district affected by the flood so far.

The prevalent attitude of the administration is an unshakeable faith in the barrage. “Khuda karay ga kuch nahi ho ga,” an official in the district administration said optimistically, predicting that the flood will simply recede before it could reach the city.

But as water level at Kotri is just 200,000 cusecs right now, irrigation officials warn that the worse might not be over yet.

Misguided intentions

A truckful of donated goods arrived in Khairpur, pulling to a stop near a relief camp where hundreds are waiting for clean water and medicines. But the boxes that are pulled down to the ground are disappointing: warm blankets, homeopathic medicines and dates.

With temperatures skyrocketing to 45 centigrade in the district and hundreds of families crammed into tiny rooms of makeshift camps, thick blankets are definitely not high on the priority list.

“While some donations are okay, many other items are simply useless,” said an army official Jamal, at a Hyderabad collection site. “Old shoes and shirts are not needed right now.”

The biggest problem camp officials are facing is a lack of storage space.“We don’t have any place to keep goods,” said an official at a camp in Khairpur, “So anything that we don’t need immediately, we are forced to throw away.”

For Imam Dina’s five-year-old child who was lying half-unconscious, worn out with diarrhoea, homeopathic medicines are just not going to cut the deal.

“Casualties among flood survivors will go up in the coming days,” said Dr Jamal Shah, who is working at a relief camp in Khairpur. This is because there is no source of clean water and these people are forced to consume polluted water.” “We need food,” said Imam Gul, who is staying at the government degree college for technology in Khairpur. Almost 500 people are staying in the 20 rooms of the college, which has been converted into a relief camp for now. “All we get is lukewarm, bad quality water,” he lamented, adding that the heat was terrible.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 15^th, 2010.