THATTA: Sewage and agriculture waste water of the entire Thatta district overflowing from Ghorabari outfall drain has become a permanent threat to farmlands, forests and other infrastructure, Dawn gathered here on Wednesday.

The polluted water gushing out of the 100km-long Ghorabari drain falls into the Arabian Sea through Garho regulator.

Local abadgars told this reporter that particularly during the monsoon, this choked drain overflows and often gets ruptured mostly in low-lying vulnerable sites at union councils Khanpur, Mehar, Jaradali, Doomani, Jhona, Kalankot, Thatta, Bao Poorandas, Mail Gharo, Gulel and others, inundating hundreds of acres of land in the coastal Taluka of Ghorabari, Keti Bandar and Thatta.

It is due to the periodical backwash of oceanic high currents, chronic seepage and hyper salinity through this drain that innumerable families of peasants and labourers had migrated to other areas due to inundation of their fertile lands, destruction of thatched and pukka houses and depletion of their livelihood resources.

Locals claimed that since that main drain was completely choked from the village of Nanghan to Var town, every year thousands of acres of agriculture land, forests and infrastructures en-route the drain met destruction. No cleansing, de-weeding and strengthening of the drain was carried out by the drainage department despite release of huge funds by the government.

When asked for comments, former superintendent engineer Obhayo Khan Khushik, who belongs to this area, said loopholes and flaws in the collection of drainage cess and abiana (water tax) through the revenue department was one of the reason for shortage of funds, affecting the timely maintenance of the drain.

He, however, said the departmental rackets and lack of non-coordination within irrigation, drainage and revenue officials under the umbrella of the government were also hurdles.

The local abadgars and general public in Thatta coastline believe that if early steps are not taken, the entire area along Ghorabari outfall drain would come under water during the coming monsoon.

Published in Dawn, June 11th, 2020