THIS refers to the photo carried with the report ‘Crops go thirsty across Sindh with canals running bone-dry’ (May 8). The picture shows a view of the dried-out bed of River Indus near Sukkur after the water level decreased due to an acute water shortage’.

Sukkur Barrage is not Sindh’s agricultural lifeline alone, as it also provides water to large parts of Balochistan as well. However, over the years its capacity has been drastically reduced due to silt deposition in upstream areas, resulting in the blockage of 11 barrage gates. As a result, the barrage — designed with a capacity of 1.5 million cubic feet per second (cusecs) — starts overflowing when water exceeds 600,000 cusecs.

Until 1984, there used to be permanent deployment and operation of a dredger upstream, ensuring that the river never overflowed the barrage gates. Now is an ideal time to address this long-standing problem.

Dredging the river bed, removal of silt, and proper servicing of the 11 closed gates will help increase the barrage’s capacity from 600,000 cusecs to up to 900,000 cusecs.

S. Nayyar Iqbal Raza
Karachi

Published in Dawn, June 5th, 2022