DADU: Intermittent rain in the Khirthar mountains for the last 48 hours has caused flooding within the catchment area of Nai Gaj Dam raising its level to 11 feet. The heavy flow also cut off the road link between Johi town and Kachho belt, which contains around 150 villages.

The entire belt and its adjoining areas have been experiencing severe cold since Sunday night.

Manchhar lake has continuously been receiving flows from the Nai Gaj catchment area comprising seven waterways originating from the Khirthar range since the start of the rainfall.

150 villages cut off from Johi; Dadu and Jamshoro districts also receive showers

On Tuesday, Dadu city, Mehar, Khairpur Nathan Shah, Johi, Bhan Syedabad, Sehwan, Sann, Manj­hand, Laky Shah Saddar, Lakha, Kotri, Jamshoro, Noori­abad and other small towns of Dadu and Jamshoro districts also received widespread rains.

Vehicular traffic on almost all intercity and local roads remained off the road and people mostly stayed indoors owing to the accumulation of rainwater and collapse of the sewerage system.

Local government institutions of the rain-hit areas were yet to clear rainwater from roads and streets to bring life back to normal.

KARACHI: While people continued to endure post-rain troubles in moving from one place to the other due to pools of stinking sewage-mixed rainwater that has accumulated in their lanes and on thoroughfares in almost all cities and towns of the interior of Sindh on Tuesday, thick fog in the morning and evening hours across the province prevented the daily routine activities from returning to normal, reports received from various districts said on Tuesday.

In most areas, visibility reduced to 0-20 metres but in some areas fog appeared so thick that things were not visible even five metres away in the early morning hours. Drivers of intercity vehicles and public transport found it highly risky to undertake their job and preferred to wait until visibility improved a couple of hours before noon.

Commuters, mostly those destined for their workplaces and educational institutions, could not make it on time. Markets, bazaars, shopping malls and commercial streets opened too late and closed the day’s business earlier than normal timings due to fog and severe cold. Customers also avoided continuing with their outdoor activities beyond sunset.

Public and private transport in major cities in the second half of the day remained thin owing to damaged roads and pools of rainwater blocking their way. Remarkably fewer number of vehicles than normal were seen plying on all intercity routes. Transport operators preferred to keep most of their buses and trucks off the road to avoid losses.

MIRPURKHAS: The Hyder­abad Electric Supply Company (Hesco) and Sukkur Electric Supply Company (Sepco) on Tuesday claimed that the power distribution system affected by the widespread rains across the province was fully normalised by the afternoon.

However, reports from different parts of Sindh spoke of hundreds of complaints of localised faults which were yet to be attended.

According to one report, many areas of Mirpurkhas district experienced a 33-hour outage as power supply, suspended at around 5pm on Sunday, could be restored only at 2pm on Tuesday.

Although the power utilities said they shut down most feeders in the rain-hit areas as a precaution to avoid loss of life and property, the prolonged suspension of electricity caused a breakdown of water supply and sewerage system in almost all cities and towns.

The officials concerned were quoted as saying that water supply was expected to normalise by Wednesday as it would take around 24 hours to ensure full-scale pumping.

Published in Dawn, January 23rd, 2019