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MIRPURKHAS, June 19: A 20-feet-wide breach developed in the Nabisar distributary near Dargah Sher Shah Shaheed, Samaro Taluka, as a result of which five villages and at least 300 acres of agricultural land were inundated on Wednesday night.
The residents of Mohammad Khan Kapri village, Khamiso Chohan, Dosu Brohi and two other villages were asleep when water entered their villages forcing them to shift to safer places along with their household articles.
Agricultural lands over an area of 300 acres were completely inundated.
The Taluka Police Officer, Samaro, and the SHO, Samaro police station, rushed to the spot and launched a rescue operation.
The irrigation officials started plugging the breach with the help of growers.
The SDO, Kunri sub-division, arrived at the spot after a delay of six hours.
The villagers said that the rotation programme was the main cause of the breach because several distributaries were closed in Samaro sub-division with the result that the water level in the Nabisar distributary increased.
They said that the Sindh chief minister and the irrigation minister had already announced to end the rotation programme in Sindh, but, however, the programme continued in Mirpurkhas district.
BREACH: An eight-feet-wide breach occurred in the Sangro minor, which is fed by the Jamrao Canal, near Mirpurkhas, on Wednesday night submerging 50 acres of land.
Irrigation officials immediately closed the water supply from the Jarwari regulator. Officials with the help of the growers were trying to plug the breach.
Talking to newsmen the general secretary, Sindh Abadgar Board, Mirpurkhas, Imtiaz Panhwar, and the president, Sindh Agriculture Growers Development Association, Rais Ahmed Khan, said that breaches were developing in the main canals and distributaries due to the rotation programme by irrigation department officials.
They said that the Nara Canal was getting supply according to its capacity, but the irrigation officials have been resorting to mismanagement of water by closing a number of distributaries in the command area of the Nara Canal.
They called upon political parties to take steps against the irrigation officials responsible as they were violating the directives of the Sindh government.
They lamented that due to the artificial water shortage created by the irrigation officials, the landlords and growers were incurring losses of millions of rupees as thousands of acres of fertile land had been rendered barren during the last few years.
They demanded that the Sindh chief minister and irrigation minister transfer the director, Nara Canal Area Water Board, executive engineers and SDOs and appoint able officers so that the irrigation system could be run smoothly and for the benefit of growers.
