KARACHI: Parliamentary Affairs Minister Nisar Khuhro informed the Sindh Assembly on Monday that no housing society was allowed to be developed between the katcha area and river protection embankments.

He was responding to a query by Muttahida Qaumi Movement legislator Sabir Qaimkhani during Question Hour that pertained to the irrigation department in the absence of the chief minister, who holds the portfolio.

The lawmaker asked whether a number of housing schemes/societies being developed between the Latifabad river embankment and the additional protection embankment near Hyderabad were legal or not.

Responding to the question, Mr Khuhro said that he was not aware of such schemes/societies, but in principle the housing schemes and societies could not be developed between the embankments as the area, though dry most of the year, might be inundated during the monsoon or floods.

He said that the area remained vulnerable owing to which housing schemes/societies were not allowed to be developed there.

He also assured the legislator that he would look into the issue and would inform the house soon.

To another question by MQM legislator Hargundas Ahuja regarding the Aqil Aqlani (AA) embankment affected during the 2010 floods, the minister said that major repairs/rehabilitation work on the embankment had been carried out and the embankment had also been raised by five feet above the 2010 flood level. Because of this, the 2013 flood passed through it safely, he said.

Responding to a question by PPP’s Naeem Kharal who pointed out that during 2014/15 monsoon season some katcha area villages upstream of the AA embankment became vulnerable, the minister said that roads in the area were damaged and currently dirt roads were being used. However, repair work was under way, he said.

The minister said that katcha areas located between the embankments were meant to accommodate additional water that came in the river during the monsoon season or the floods and no construction was to be done there.

However, many people were living there and were engaged in farming and livestock rearing and the government had constructed roads, etc, to facilitate these people. The area was inundated during floods and the agricultural fields/crops were destroyed, but the yield of the land increased and the farmers got bumper crops in the next season owing to the highly fertile silt brought in with the flood waters, the minister said.

MQM legislator Sardar Ahmed asked why the river channel was not lined so that the adjoining katcha area land could be used for agriculture permanently and without the fear of floods.

Mr Khuhro said that the katcha area between the Guddu and Kotri barrages was spread over approximately 800 kilometres in length and hefty funds were needed to carry out lining of the river on the pattern of the banks of the Thames that crisscrossed London.

Besides, the Indus was one of the major rivers and when floods came even the lined embankments could not handle the water pressure and the losses would be even greater as the people living there would be thinking that they were safe and protected from the floods owing to the lining, he added.

After completion of the first question, Deputy Speaker Shehla Raza called for the next four questions but the movers of these questions — Nusrat Abbasi, Rana Ansar, Kamran Akhtar and Shaharyar Mahar — were not present and nobody on their behalf asked the questions. Eventually, the chair concluded Question Hour in 25 minutes.

Published in Dawn, November 14th, 2017