LARKANA, Aug 1: A five-member committee of irrigation experts constituted by the Sindh chief minister tasked to go to see the Indus River embankments has pointed out erosions at the old Tori Bund and Nusrat Loop Bund in a report whose findings were shared with Dawn on Thursday.

The committee comprised irrigation expert Idrees Rajput who headed the committee, Irrigation Chief Engineer Zaheer Haider Shah, Executive Engineer Aziz Memon, Executive Engineer Pritam Das and Executive Engineer of the Sindh Irrigation and Drainage Authority Jamaluddin Mangan.

Mr Rajput said the committee was assigned to inspect river bunds across Sindh and identify vulnerable spots. “The committee on Monday visited embankments from Hyderabad to Sukkur on Moro side (left bank) and later we went from Shikarpur to Guddu on the right bank of the River Indus,” added Mr Rajput.

He said active erosion was traced at old Tori Bund at RD-269 located opposite the B.S. Feeder from where the Begari canal originates.

“Work on building stone pitching apron was in progress to strengthen the bund and the government plans to construct spur and nine studs to divert the current of the water especially to withstand a flood,” he said.

Furthermore, the OGDC bund near Ghotki was intact while minor erosion was observed at the Qadipur bund, he said.

The committee also visited other bunds such as Ruk spur bund, Nusrat loop bund, Agani-Akil bund and Sann-Vehdari bund.

“We found active erosion near J-spur on Nusrat loop bund and should there be a rise in the water flow it may endanger it.”

According to him, the irrigation department had not carried out any fortification work here due to unavailability of funds. He said the spurs and studs constructed previously at Akil-Aghani loop bund were still undamaged but they had proposed in their report to construct one extra J-spur there.

The length of river bunds in Sindh is spread over 1,205 miles but the government had not yet released funds for reinforcing the bunds. When asked about his colleagues’ observations about the Indus River embankments, he said that in their opinion most bunds are intact and at critical spots with noticeable erosion, work was going on.

Mr Rajput said that he would submit on Aug 5 (Monday) the committee’s findings and recommendations to the secretary irrigation for further forwarding to the Sindh chief minister.