A FEASIBILITY report for the modernistaion of the 53-year-old Guddu Barrage — the first controlling point over the Indus in Sindh — is now ready and awaiting implementation.

The project, which also includes the Sukkur Barrage (whose feasibility study is also nearing completion) is part of the Water Sector Improvement Project (WISP) of the Sindh Irrigation and Drainage Authority (Sida). The rehabilitation of both barrages is to be funded by the World Bank. The project’s tentative cost is $208m

The loan documents for the rehabilitation of the Guddu Barrage — which has a designed discharge capacity of around 1.2m cusecs — were approved by the executive committee of the National Economic Council (Ecnec) this April.


The water flows are expected to improve in the off-taking canals that mainly irrigate the rice-growing areas. One of the main canals also supplies water to Balochistan, which often accuses Sindh of not providing it with its just share of water


The barrage, according to Sida officials, is facing multiple hydraulic problems that could exacerbate with the completion of the Rainee Canal (a floodwater channel) on its left bank, which is being built by Wapda.

By and large, the barrage is said to be in a satisfactory state, but foreign consultants have identified works that seek to increase its age for another 50 years to handle floodwaters.

The consultants have suggested around eight works, including the replacement of gates, operating system and three canal head regulators; the construction of a new pocket divide-wall and the removal of the existing extension; building a new spur on the left bank; and the raising and strengthening of dykes.

“The designed discharge capacity of the Guddu Barrage will remain unchanged,” says Aijaz Shaikh, project director at the Sindh irrigation department’s Project Monitoring Office (PMO). The reason for not considering increasing the barrage’s designed capacity was that it would have impacted two other barrages — Sukkur and Kotri — whose capacity is lesser than Guddu’s. However, experts have suggested reopening six of the 10 closed gates of the Sukkur Barrage.

A new spur is being built at Guddu upstream considering the fact that gauges at the barrages were submerged under the 2010 super floods. Likewise, a divide wall would be built at the seventh bay instead of its present position on the fourth bay. The spur’s creation will centralise the course of the river water, which flows mainly on the right side.

The barrage’s operation would be mechanised generally. The flows are expected to improve in the off-taking canals that mainly irrigate the rice-growing areas. One of the main canals also supplies water to Balochistan, which often accuses Sindh of not providing it with its just share of water.

According to Noor Mohammad Baloch, a former chief engineer of the Guddu Barrage, global warming should also be given serious consideration, while the farmers also need to change their cropping patterns.

He said the pond level at the barrage has been raised to 260ft from 255.5ft, and wondered for how long would the authorities keep on increasing the barrage’s pond level. “We have avoided proposing a rise in the gates’ height. The crop season has now been reduced to 80 days from 120 days due to belated water availability. There are now early and late sowing crop varieties that can be used by growers,” he said.

He also emphasised the need for closer coordination between the agriculture and irrigation departments, on the pattern of the Punjab government.

Keeping in mind the experience of the 2010 super floods when Guddu had successfully withstood 1.148m cusecs of water, an independent panel of experts had mulled over the possibility of enhancing its design capacity provided this was synchronised at the other two barrages as well. But the idea was dropped due to limited financing.

Considering the possibility of another super flood, Baloch confirmed the report’s finding that the controlled weirs at Guddu Barrage upstream near the left marginal bund must be put in place to divert water through the old river course of the Indus, which existed before the construction of the barrage. Then, the water would fall downstream Guddu again.

Published in Dawn, Economic & Business, August 31st, 2015

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