SUKKUR, July 4: More than 100 villages in the districts of Sukkur and Ghotki have been inundated following a rise in the level of the Indus river, irrigation department sources told this correspondent on Monday evening. The sources said that since there had been no floods in the river for about 12 years, many settlements and villages had cropped up near the river, and people in the areas had been badly hit.

The sources said that a flow of about 500,000 cusecs would pass through the Guddu barrage on July 9. On Monday the upstream flow at the barrage was 2,19,000 cusecs, and a daily increase of 60,000 to 70,000 cusecs was being recorded at the barrage.

In the meantime, the irrigation department has declared four embankments in Sindh as sensitive, and round-the-clock work is under way to strengthen them. The work is expected to be completed before July 9 when the first swell would enter Sindh.

Chief Engineer Sukkur Barrage Nawaz Memon said that after inspecting all the embankments in the province, the department had found four of them in weak positions. These are Akil Agani (Larkana), Bhanot (Hala), J-Spur near Dadu-Moro Bridge and Sagiyoon-Matiyari Bund.

He said that a huge flow of 490,000 to 500,000 cusecs was expected to enter Sindh between July 8 and 10, and sand, stone crush, cement, heavy machinery and bulldozers had been moved to vulnerable sites to cope with emergencies.

He said that the entire kutcha area and villages in the areas would be inundated. Therefore, people have been asked to move to safe places.

He said that the flood in Indus would be of a moderate level and there was no need for any panic. However, he added, people living in kutcha areas must move to safe place because the areas would be inundated.