Tori Bund repairs start
Earlier this month, a breach in the bund wreaked havoc in several areas in Sindh.
SUKKUR:
Tori Bund repairs started on Sunday morning from the Ghoraghat area, where the riverbed is wide so the water is quite shallow.
Earlier this month, a breach in the bund wreaked havoc in several areas in the province. It was also the subject of much controversy as it was not clear if the breach was natural because of the flooding or if it was deliberately broken.
After the super floods of 1976, which put tremendous pressure on KK (Kachcha Kharif) bund and Tori Bund, irrigation authorities constructed three loop bunds, Tori Loop Bund, Haibat Bund and Ghouspur Bund, for the safety of nearby cities and towns. However, sources claim that the irrigation department paid no attention to the condition of these embankments and made no efforts to strengthen them after 1976. Their negligence was only discovered now after the floods hit and the embankments proved, in some cases, to be too weak, they said.
More than 1,100,000 cusecs of water rushed through these embankments during the first week of August, with the level of water in Tori Bund rising dangerously high. But, residents allege, the irrigation department remained oblivious to the situation and adopted a ‘wait-and-see’ policy. If the administration had taken prompt action, the embankment would not have buckled under the pressure.
With time and continued negligence, the gap in the bund widened to a few hundred metres and now will take at least a month to repair, they said, even though Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah had announced a few days earlier that the repairs will be completed within a week. The task of repairing the embankment has been given to Frontier Works Organisation (FWO), Shah had announced.
Asadullah Jamro, an assistant executive engineer who has been working in irrigation for 22 years and whose grandfather was also in the same department, has a slightly different explanation of the breach. He says that in earlier flooding (1992/3) the Ghoraghat and Ghauspur bunds broke, making it necessary for the department to build the new Tori bund connected to the old one. There is a two-foot difference in height between the old and new Tori bunds, he maintained. The old, lower part of the Tori Bund hooks up to the Ghouspur Bund. “When the water came it flowed over the Tori Bund,” he said. “The water then headed to the Ghouspur Bund, which was old and neglected - it was the Ghouspur Bund that broke or was broken.” He maintained that the Tori Bund didn’t break.
Jacobabad stranded
Road and rail links between Jacobabad city and the rest of the country remain suspended, virtually cutting off the city from physical contact with the outside world. The only way to go to Jacobabad is by boat.
The city remains empty, with barely 10 per cent of its population still living in their homes. Residents still in the city complain of an acute shortage of basic commodities. Black marketeers are making the most of the situation by selling items in short supply at exorbitant prices.
According to Israr Ahmed Khoso a landlord in Kashmore, over 200,000 acres of standing crops were destroyed in the floods. However, while the growers have suffered massive losses these months, they are expected to make up in the coming years because the floodwater has left their soil more fertile. The sugarcane that will be produced next year will be much sweeter, predicted Khoso.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 30th, 2010.
Tori Bund repairs started on Sunday morning from the Ghoraghat area, where the riverbed is wide so the water is quite shallow.
Earlier this month, a breach in the bund wreaked havoc in several areas in the province. It was also the subject of much controversy as it was not clear if the breach was natural because of the flooding or if it was deliberately broken.
After the super floods of 1976, which put tremendous pressure on KK (Kachcha Kharif) bund and Tori Bund, irrigation authorities constructed three loop bunds, Tori Loop Bund, Haibat Bund and Ghouspur Bund, for the safety of nearby cities and towns. However, sources claim that the irrigation department paid no attention to the condition of these embankments and made no efforts to strengthen them after 1976. Their negligence was only discovered now after the floods hit and the embankments proved, in some cases, to be too weak, they said.
More than 1,100,000 cusecs of water rushed through these embankments during the first week of August, with the level of water in Tori Bund rising dangerously high. But, residents allege, the irrigation department remained oblivious to the situation and adopted a ‘wait-and-see’ policy. If the administration had taken prompt action, the embankment would not have buckled under the pressure.
With time and continued negligence, the gap in the bund widened to a few hundred metres and now will take at least a month to repair, they said, even though Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah had announced a few days earlier that the repairs will be completed within a week. The task of repairing the embankment has been given to Frontier Works Organisation (FWO), Shah had announced.
Asadullah Jamro, an assistant executive engineer who has been working in irrigation for 22 years and whose grandfather was also in the same department, has a slightly different explanation of the breach. He says that in earlier flooding (1992/3) the Ghoraghat and Ghauspur bunds broke, making it necessary for the department to build the new Tori bund connected to the old one. There is a two-foot difference in height between the old and new Tori bunds, he maintained. The old, lower part of the Tori Bund hooks up to the Ghouspur Bund. “When the water came it flowed over the Tori Bund,” he said. “The water then headed to the Ghouspur Bund, which was old and neglected - it was the Ghouspur Bund that broke or was broken.” He maintained that the Tori Bund didn’t break.
Jacobabad stranded
Road and rail links between Jacobabad city and the rest of the country remain suspended, virtually cutting off the city from physical contact with the outside world. The only way to go to Jacobabad is by boat.
The city remains empty, with barely 10 per cent of its population still living in their homes. Residents still in the city complain of an acute shortage of basic commodities. Black marketeers are making the most of the situation by selling items in short supply at exorbitant prices.
According to Israr Ahmed Khoso a landlord in Kashmore, over 200,000 acres of standing crops were destroyed in the floods. However, while the growers have suffered massive losses these months, they are expected to make up in the coming years because the floodwater has left their soil more fertile. The sugarcane that will be produced next year will be much sweeter, predicted Khoso.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 30th, 2010.