LAHORE: Thousands of acres of the agriculture land and crops have been damaged in several villages of the district Rahim Yar Khan as the mighty Indus River has started eroding the land.

Thousands of the people and their families from the villages, including Chachran Sharif, Ahmed Kudden and Zahir Pir, had to evacuate in the recent days as the river water started flooding their houses after eroding the land.

The residents of village Ahmed Kudden have held protests against the irrigation department and their representatives for ignoring the issue and their plight.

Talking to Dawn, Allah Ditta Ghaleja, one of the farmers of the area, says the river Indus has been constantly rising but they have nowhere else to go. He deplores that the issue has been brought into the knowledge of the district administration and irrigation department authorities to fix the issue but they have taken no step to address it.

“The river has damaged the houses and crops, especially cotton and fodder crops, and it is eroding the agriculture land on a daily basis,” says Allah Ditta, a farmer.

He informs the scribe that the river has damaged several residential areas and it could also damage the Minchin Bund. He warns of heavy losses to the local population if the steps are not taken to address the issue.

Peer Bakhsh, another farmer, says that it’s the constituency of Punjab Minister for Finance Hashim Jawan Bakht but his government is not taking any measures to help the poor of the area. He has demanded the government develop a dyke or install stones to stop erosion of the agricultural land and houses.

“We are poor people and we do not have anything to reconstruct or rebuild our houses and our livelihood depends on our land,” he says.

He urges the local politicians to raise the issue in the assembly to fix it and save thousands of people and their children.

Punjab Secretary Irrigation Department Dr Ahmad Javed Qazi says he has already sent the chief engineer to the site to find out what remedial measures can be taken, including construction of dyke, to stop erosion.

“The area is inside the river bund and river morphology has changed, which has affected the local people and eroded the land. The Minchin Flood Bund is still away and the irrigation authorities would not be able to do much inside the bund at this stage,” he explains.

Mr Qazi says the department is making efforts to protect the bund if water reaches.

Punjab Finance minister Hashim Jawan Bakhat claims that he has ordered the irrigation department to conduct a study for construction of dykes in the area.

He says the government would build dykes to save the agriculture land after completion of the study.

Published in Dawn, June 5th, 2019