BAHAWALNAGAR: Two villagers drowned near Baba Fareed Bridge after they were stranded in the floodwater caused by a 50-foot wide breach in the protection dyke in the Sutlej here on Tuesday night.

The breach, which occurred near Shamska village on July 21, flooded more than 10,000 acre land over a 20-km area and has yet to be plugged despite several protests by the locals.

According to Rescue 1122, Muhammad Shahid (25) along with his 10-year-old cousin Muhammad Waqas, residents of Habibka village, were visiting their relatives in Basti Gujjar situated in the river bed. The duo got stranded because of the floodwater along with hundreds of people of the area. On Tuesday night, they decided to leave and were on their way home wading through five-foot deep water when suddenly they fell into a 20-foot deep well near Baba Fareed Bridge and drowned.

Rescuers, from the [sole] flood relief camp set up at Mari Chakoka, launched a search operation and recovered the bodies from the river after a hectic hours-long effort.

20-foot breach in Sutlej dyke has widened to 50-feet and yet to be plugged

Talking to media persons, families of the victims declared the district administration responsible for human and financial loss. They blamed the administration for not taking steps earlier to plug the breach.

They said the authorities did nothing to plug the breach even after the passage of a week. They said the Bahawalnagar DC did not even bother to visit the flooded area till now.

They demanded that Punjab CM Parvez Elahi take immediate notice of the matter before the situation worsened and announce compensation for them.

A revenue official requesting anonymity told Dawn that initially the breach was only 20-foot wide and it could be plugged easily. However, the ‘negligent’ officials left it unattended for 36 hours until it widened to 50-foot.

A rescue official said the affected area needed several flood relief camps to evacuate stranded people and to provide them food and other facilities but the district administration had set up a single [Rescue 1122] camp for the 20km affected area.

Assistant Commissioner (AC) Minchinabad Ahmad Javed Cheema, who claimed to have started plugging the breach from July 24 told this correspondent on phone, that the breach was yet to be plugged because of the ‘inefficient’ irrigation officials.

Irrigation SDO Ali Abdullah said it was not the his department’s job to plug the breach but it was a matter related to the DC office. He said the matter needed massive funds and the department had limited amount which could be used only to repair the canal breach. Extra funds were required to repair the breach which could be issued only by the DC, he added.

He said the breach had become so wide that it was no longer possible to repair it but the damage could be minimised by diverting river water channels. In this regard, the irrigation officials, including EXEN and SE, had informed the Minchinabad AC and the Bahawalnagar DC about solution to the problem since day one, he maintained.

“As soon as the DC releases the funds, the department will start work to plug the river breach.”

Deputy Commissioner Bahawalnagar retired Capt Muhammad Waseem neither attended calls nor replied to text messages despite repeated attempts.

Published in Dawn, July 28th, 2022