DADU: Senior irrigation officials, including the secretary, rushed to the RD-34 to RD-38 section of the Right Bank Outfall Drain-II (RBOD-II) on Tuesday after receiving reports of heavy damage to the embankment and a potential threat to the Sehwan section of the Indus Highway.

Heavy machinery was rushed to the site to start repair and rehabilitation work immediately.

Engineers and officials at the site said that a 5,000-foot-long portion of the RBOD-II bank was washed away, suggesting that the Indus had apparently changed its course and a deluge was threatening Garhi Wari village near Sehwan Sharif. They said that besides carrying out the repair work, they were working on ways to divert the water flow back to the original course.

Irrigation Secretary Zaheer Hyder Shah, RBOD-II executive engineer Bahar Ali Jumani and other officials said that J-type spurs were being installed near Sehwan to divert the flow. They said that the Indus changed its course from Garhi Wari to Pir Mard villages flooding lands all along its way and washing away 5,000-foot-long bank of the RBOD-II — the main defensive line to protect the Indus Highway and nearby villages — from RD-34 to RD-37. The deluge also caused partial damage to the next section of the embankment i.e. from RD-37 to RD-44.

Secretary Shah said that the affected RBOD-II portion was the same which had sustained heavy damage during the 2010 floods. He said the repair work had been carried out soon after the flood water subsided but now when the Indus had changed its course, the water level at this site was rising. Although the situation was likely to return to normal, a long-term plan was being evolved to ensure that the RBOD-II would withstand super floods in future.

Mr Shah recalled that the work on the RBOD-II — between Karampur village and Gharo Creek — had been started in 2002 for the protection of 4.3 million acres of land from water-logging. He said that the drain had a length of 273 kilometres and was projected to divert 3,725 cusec of drain water into the sea. It was also supposed to protect Manchhar Lake from getting polluted. He said that 75 per cent of the project had since been completed.

It was stated that attention was being paid to 52 weak spots along the Indus River on a directive given by Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah.

Published in Dawn, March 18th, 2015

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