DADU: More than 30 villages and standing crops on thousands of acres were inundated after Main Rohri Canal developed a 120-foot wide breach near Yousuf Dahri regulator, about 50 kilometres from Moro in Naushahro Feroze district on Sunday.

Officials said that standing crops of cotton, sugar cane and vegetables on about 2,500 to 3,000 acres came under water. The villages of Yousuf Dahri, Jangal Dahri, Rasool Bux Dahri, Mureed Dahri, Tufail Punjabi, Sarif Birohi, Gujar Panjabi, Aziz Gujjar, Adam Lashari, Mureed Dahri, Jawan Dahri, Bachal Dahri, Sher Mohammad Dahri, Qaim Bhatti, Imdad Lashari and other settlements faced flooding.

An affected villager Ali Muradan Dahri complained to journalists that residents of Yousuf Dahri village had time and again informed irrigation department officials about the weakening canal embankments near their village but they did not pay any attention to their warnings nor took any steps to reinforce the dykes.

He said that as soon as the breach occurred, water rushed into the village giving him and his family members and other co-villagers little time to salvage their valuables and stocked grain. They just ran for their lives till they reached a safe place, he said.

Later, officials of irrigation department reached the breached spot along with heavy machinery and started work to plug it. Shaheed Benazirabad Commissioner Syed Mohsin Ali Shah, DC Abrar Ahmed Jafar and Indus Rangers commandant also reached there and supervised the work.

Growers bodies demand removal of Sukkur Barrage chief engineer

Adviser to Sindh chief minister on irrigation Ishfaq Ahmed Memon told Dawn on phone that the breach occurred at 5 am and then water flow in the canal was closed at 6 am to help the plugging work complete at the earliest.

Sukkur Barrage Engineer Irshad Ahmed Memon said that an inquiry team had been formed to probe the cause of the breach. Initial reports suggested the breach had occurred because of holes dug by mice through the dyke.

Growers for removal of officers

HYDERABAD: Sindh Chamber of Agriculture (SCA) and Sindh Abadgar Ittehad (SAI) have demanded removal of Sukkur barrage chief engineer, superintending engineer of Rohri Canal and other officials concerned over a large breach in Rohri Canal.

SAI president Nawab Zubair Talpur said in a statement that the cause of breach was blocking Rohri Canal’s water to release it into Nusrat Canal that irrigated lands of influential landowners of Benazirabad district alone. It was done when the canal was getting 14,000 cusecs water flows, he said.

He said the traditional incompetence and lethargy by the irrigation personnel led to the breach further widening to 200-foot, causing displacement of a large number of families from the area.

He said the breach had caused billions of rupees losses to growers because the canal which irrigated 2.6 million acres would now remain closed for at least a month till its repairs were complete.

The SCA demanded at a meeting chaired by Kabool Mohammad Kathian Sindh that Rohri Canal SE Mukhtiar Abro and officers concerned be removed for the breach, said a press release.

It said that corrupt irrigation officials sold water to upper riparian landowners at the cost of tail-end farmers’ share and destroyed tail-end reaches of the canal.

The meeting believed the breach was a result of blocking water flows at upstream Rohri Canal and said that the damage caused by the manmade disaster destroyed crops and inundated villages.

The meeting demanded immediate removal of SE of Rohri Canal and called for assessing scale of damage caused in the tail-end areas and recovering it from SE of Rohri Canal.

Growers complained to SCA that despite adequate water flows in canals water shortage in the tail-end areas persisted which were a matter of deep concern for the farming community. They said that tail-end areas of Kotri and Sukkur barrages were facing acute shortage of water despite availability of water flows in the system, they said.

They held corrupt officials of the irrigation department responsible for the situation and said these officers were selling water to upper riparian of the canal by blocking flows upstream, which was the main reason behind the breach.

Growers reject withdrawal of subsidised tractor scheme

The meeting rejected withdrawal of subsidised tractor scheme by Sindh government and said that farmers had paid millions of rupees for tractors to Sindh Bank which had received markup on this amount for two years and had now announced refunding the money to farmers.

The meeting called for disbursing the markup that had been earned on the farmers’ money by the bank over the past two years.

The meeting was attended by SCA general secretary Zahid Bhurgri, vice president Ejaz Nabi Shah, senior vice president Nabi Bux Sathio and others.

Breach in another canal dyke

SUKKUR: Standing cotton crop on 250 acres land was inundated after Bambly Wah (canal) developed a 40-foot wide breach at RD-39 near Khanpur Mahar in Ghotki district on Sunday.

Affected growers who held protest against irrigation department told media persons that despite being informed by growers about the breach no one from the irrigation department arrived to plug the breach.

They that they sowed cotton after taking loans and sustained heavy financial losses due to negligence of irrigation department officials.

They demanded authorities concerned take stern action against the officials responsible for the damage and pay compensation for their losses, otherwise, they would stage strong protests.

The villagers plugged the breach after hectic efforts of seven hour on self-help basis.

Published in Dawn, July 22nd, 2019