MUZAFFARGARH: More than one hundred people from the villages of Jatoi and Lundi Pittafi have been evacuated after their houses and farmland were swept away by the erosion in the river Indus.

Along with the houses, more than 1,000 acre land, which had sugarcane crop cultivated on it, also disappeared.

Khadim Chandia, one of the affected, said he was waiting for the return of his hard work in the form of the sugarcane crop but his dream had been shattered as his whole crop as well as land had been eroded. He said he was looking towards the government for help.

Some other people said the Indus eroded their all green land and they were running from the government departments to the local MPs for help. They shared their concerns about the lack of arrangements, absence of spur along the river or safety measures by the authorities. They said the irrigation officials had advised them to launch a protest to force the government release funds for the spurs. They complained about the cold attitude and lack of interest on the part of the irrigation higher-ups.

The affected farmers, including Muhammad Ismael, said their delegations called on the local MPA, seeking arrangements to control erosion who told them that he had met with the chief minister many times for seeking funds and that the release of funds was under process. They said they had met Chief Engineer (Irrigation) of Dera Ghazi Khan Sajid Rizvi who told them the river erosion was natural and the irrigation department could not do much about it.

When Dawn contacted Irrigation Exen Usman, he said the department had no funds to control erosion.

Chief Engineer Sajid Rizvi said he had constituted a team to visit the erosion site.

The residents of affected villages appealed to Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar and Prime Minister Imran Khan to take notice of their plight and compensate for their loss.

Published in Dawn, December 26th, 2021