DADU: Around 500 acres of farmland submerged in flooding caused by a breach in the dyke of Mohabbat Wah (irrigation channel) near Kot Diji town of Khairpur district on Tuesday.

Flooding also hit a hospital, a primary school and some villages besides inundating a big part of the highway near the town. Flow of vehicular traffic on the highway was badly affected.

Growers of the area told local reporters that they suffered heavy losses due to the incident and slow pace of breach plugging work. The deluge swept away the wheat and vegetable crops, they said.

Sukkur Barrage chief engineer Syed Sardar Ahmed Shah told this reporter at about 9pm that the plugging work had been completed. He said local irrigation officials along with machinery, stone pitching material and labourers had rushed to the spot after receiving information about the breach. He said he had ordered an inquiry into the incident in order to fix responsibility. He believed that the dyke could not withstand pressure of heavy flows as growers would stop drawing water in night hours.

The plugging work was supervised by the superintendent engineer and executive engineer concerned.

Published in Dawn, November 24th, 2021