Averting crises: ‘Illegal’ constructions on riverbeds cause floods, says DC

The DCs have been directed to close down the roads on the embankment before monsoon.

HYDERABAD: At least 15 roads, each spread over several kilometres, have been built on the Indus riverbed (katcha area) in Thatta district by the government after the 2010 floods.

Thatta deputy commissioner Agha Shahnawaz Babar revealed this at a meeting which reviewed flood mitigation measures on Wednesday. The meeting was attended by deputy commissioners of the nine districts in Hyderabad division, officials of the Sindh Irrigation Department, the Sindh Irrigation and Drainage Authority, the Hyderabad Electric Supply Company, the Water and Sanitation Agency and the Highways Department.



Babar, while speaking about the construction of these roads, did not disclose the amount of money spent on these roads and on whose orders they were built. “These roads have created cuts to the embankments and will pose threats in case of flood,” he told the meeting.

In its March 2013 order, the Supreme Court declared all construction activity on the riverbed illegal and directed the irrigation departments to remove all the existing encroachments. The loss of life and property during the 2010 floods was partly attributed to the illegal structures which obstruct the flow of water over the riverbed.

The Hyderabad division commissioner, Syed Mustafa Jamal, who chaired the meeting, directed Babar and the irrigation department’s officials to build levees and close these roads before the monsoon season. The commissioner also directed all the DCs to inspect and submit detailed reports regarding the condition of embankments of the River Indus, canals, drainage channels and the encroachments over the riverbed.

De-watering pumps

The DCs informed the commissioner that a large number of de-watering pumps which were distributed among residents of submerged areas after 2010 and 2011 rains had gone missing. In Hyderabad alone, 207 pumps could not be recovered. “At least 500 to 600 de-watering pumps have not been recovered in the nine districts,” a source told The Express Tribune. Each of these pumps cost at least Rs200,000.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 27^th, 2013.