Breach in Manchar Lake causes flooding of 100 villages

HYDERABAD/ SEHWAN: Gushing waters have inundated a 100 villages after a safety dyke of Manchhar lake was breached at three points in Dadu.

EDO Revenue Sohail Bachani has denied the reports of breaches, and said the lake is just overflowing.

He said the staff working to strengthen the embankments of the lake has left due to flooding.

The flood water is heading towards Johi, Dadu and Saeedabad areas due to breaches in Manchar Lake.

Water has already inundated several villages of Jamal Tribe while Indus Highway has been closed to traffic.

Meanwhile flash floods have disconnected land routes to Juhi, Mehar and Khairpur areas of Thatta and hundreds of flood victims are waiting for assistance.

Threat averted from Manchar Lake

In order to protect the Manchar Lake from flooding, the irrigation department made a cut in the Ural Wah head canal on Wednesday and diverted surplus water to the Indus River.

The water level in the lake rose above the 121 RL gauge as expected, because of the major water surge flowing into the lake through the MNV drain, submerging the gauging instrument. However, according to the control room in Sehwan Sharif, the water level in the lake reached RL 121.6 feet while the maximum level is 122.

DDO Revenue in Sehwan tehsil told Daily Express that the room of water storage had reached its maximum capacity on Wednesday morning. Throughout the day, authorities worked to raise the level of the embankment to avert an overflow of water at MNV Zero Point.

Experts said there was a continuous inflow of 40,000 cusecs of water into the lake. According to irrigation officials, there was only 10,000 to 12,000 cusecs of water outflowing from the lake.

The decision to make a cut in the canal was made at a high-level meeting attended by irrigation and police officials.

The revenue department informed the meeting that the four union council areas that may be affected by the breach had already been evacuated. It was also said that the LS bund and parts of the Indus Highway may have to be cut to let the water flow into the Indus at Karampur, situated between Sehwan Sharif and Bhan Saeedabad.

Meanwhile, the water level at the Kotri Barrage dropped. According to the control room, the inflow was recorded at 291, 849 cusecs while the outflow was 271,934 cusecs.

In Sujawal city, electricity supply to all areas except those submerged has been restored.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 16^th, 2010.