LAYYAH, Aug 15: Erosion caused by river Indus threatens to eliminate centuries-old locality of Khokharwala. The boys’ high school of the area has already been submerged.

After washing away hundreds of acres of standing crop of sugar cane in Jhakhar union council, the mighty river has so far eaten up some 80 houses of Basti Khokharwala and dozens of houses of adjacent area. More than 1,000 inhabitants of Khokharwala have so far shifted to safer places.

Half of the building of the double-storey boys’ high school, established in 1960, has been washed away. Doors and windows of the remaining structure have been removed by the locals.

The girls’ high school, located adjacent to the eastern side of the protective dyke, is also on the verge of erosion as the spur is also being eroded by the Indus which is flowing some yards away from the school boundary.

A local political figure, Mehar Riaz Melwana, and other residents of Khokharwala told Dawn that if the protective measures like construction of Sapar Bandh were not taken timely, hundreds of thousands of residents of other localities of the area, including Basti Arian, Basti Sial, Basti Sidhar, Basti Mouchi, Basti Jarah and Basti Garkan, would be forced to leave their native places and thousands of acres of fertile agricultural land would be washed away.

Local MPA Mehar Ejaz Ahmed Achlana of PML-N strongly criticised both district and provincial governments for not taking timely measures to save the inhabitants of the affected area.

Achlana urged the administration to evacuate people to some safer places.