KARACHI: A portion of the Hub canal developed 150-foot breach near Mang­hopir following heavy rains, area people and officials said on Sunday.

The news of the breach caused panic and scare among the people living in Surjani Town and Manghopir.

Senior Pakistan Peoples Party leader and chief minister’s focal person for district West Waqar Mehdi confirmed the breach and said that district administration, police and irrigation officials were present there.

Officials said that Hub dam, located 56 kilometres from Karachi, had last week reached capacity and overflowed when the water level was recorded at nearly 340 feet leading to opening of spillway of the reservoir. Since then, further flow to the Hub dam had been stop­ped to prevent the situation from deteriorating further.

A senior official, who wished not to be named, said that the flow of water from the breach was still far away from human settlements.

He said that at present there was no threat to two nearby villages — Khamiso Goth and Pathan Goth — since the two settlements situated on height. Due to this, the authorities had so far not decided to shift the people to at any other location, he added.

Mr Mehdi said since the rain continued till late in the evening, the work to plug the breach had not started yet. If any threat emerged to the villages in Manghopir, the residents would be shifted to nearby educational institutions, he added.

The deputy commissioner-West, senior police officers and irrigation department staff had got the flow towards the Hub dam stopped.

Last week, the Water and Power Development Autho­rity (Wapda) had issued an alert to the residents of nearby areas warning them to take extra precautions.

Published in Dawn, July 25th, 2022