SUKKUR, July 29: More than 200 villages in Sukkur and Ghotki districts came under water after the water level at Guddu and Sukkur barrages rose on Tuesday.

Residents of these villages have begun shifting to safer places.

However, the irrigation officials said it was a routine matter that when the water level increased at the barrages, the kutcha area came under water. They claimed that it was beneficial for growers of the area.

They said that it was a low intensity flood and they were not expecting any medium or high intensity flood in the River Indus.

The water level at the Guddu Barrage is continuously rising and, according to irrigation officials, a flow of 350,000 cusecs of water will pass through the barrage on Tuesday night. This will be the biggest flow of the season.

The irrigation sources said that as the Tarbela Dam was filled to its capacity, surplus water was being discharged from there with the result that pressure was building up at the Guddu Barrage.

Talking to this correspondent by telephone, the Sukkur Barrage executive engineer said 350,000 cusecs water flow was expected at the barrage on Tuesday night.

He said that the officials of Sukkur and Guddu barrages were on high alert and arrangements were being made to strengthen embankments of canals and bridges so that the water could pass through the barrages safely.

He said that canals of both the barrages were flowing to their capacity.

The chief engineer of the Guddu Barrage denied that any breach had developed near Manjhipur and said that the area were flooded by rain water.

He said that the canals gates were lowered before raining to avoid any mishap.

DEMO: A demonstration was held in Qadirpur on Monday against the administration of the Qadirpur Gas field for not providing jobs to local people.