SUKKUR: A vast area on the outskirts of Jacobabad district was flooded and standing paddy crop washed away on Saturday when a breach developed in the dyke of Taju tributary and widened by over 50 feet by gushing water.

Affected growers and farmers said that the breach occurred in the dyke due to rise in the Begari canal water level. The resultant flooding hit farmlands near Ghari Khero and destroyed standing paddy crop, they added.

They told local reporters that the local irrigation officials were alerted immediately after the breach started damaging the dyke but nobody from the department visited the site for plugging work.

“We started the plugging work on our own using the insufficient stone-pitching material available with us,” they said, and pointed out that flooding had already caused considerable losses to them.

Meanwhile, the Jacob­abad deputy commissioner is reported to have directed senior irrigation officials to send requisite machinery and labourers along with supervisory staff to the site to mend the dyke.

A similar breach developed in the dyke of Heerul Deen tributary at Mureed Jafari village near Tang­wani town of Kandhkot-Kashmore district on Saturday.

Farmers and other residents of the nearby villages said that strong currents swept away their standing paddy crop and a number of their thatched houses, besides other structures.

The villagers led by Mujtaba Khoso, Noor Khan Khoso, Yaar Ali and Kher Jaan held a protest demonstration and told local reporters that they had repeatedly approached the local irrigation and district officials for relief and rescue work but without any practical response.

They said they also requested the officials to close the water channel in order to prevent flooding from causing further damage but this was also not heeded.

“We had to plug the breach and save ourselves on a self-help basis,” they added.

Over 200 villages hit by flooding

DADU: While the water level in Indus at many places is constantly rising, the river has overtopped its banks and caused flooding in several districts. More than 200 villages in the Kachho belt have been affected by the flooding and they stood cut off from each other and also from the closest town of Johi. Many villages of Naushahro Feroze, Shaheed Benazirabad, Jamshoro and Matyari districts are also reported to have been affected by flooding following more rainfall over the week.

In Dadu district’s katcha area of Purano Dero, Saeedpur, Mondaar, Ketti Jatoi areas, a large number of villagers stand marooned and are restricted at their respective villages due to inundation and destruction of road communication.

Superintendent engineer of irrigation department at Dadu Mohammad Allam Rahpoto said on Saturday that water was receding in the Kachho area and claimed that the areas around Larkana-Sehwan (LS) Bund (dyke) were safe.

Meanwhile, flows in Indus at Bakhri Bund near Kandiaro were mounting pressure on this dyke. Low flood currents were passing at the Amri and Kotri Barrage.

Flooding has also affected has a large number of villages in the katcha areas of Bilawalpur and Talti in taluka Sehwan and Unnarpur and Budhapur of Manjhand taluka, besides parts of Kotri in Jamshoro district.

Shaheed Benazirabad Deputy Commissioner Amir Hussain Panhwar has said that flood water will cross the katcha area of this district. He said the floodwater did not have immense pressure downstream Sukkur Barrage. He said that he along with local irrigation officials visited many dykes and ensured constant monitoring of situation.

Published in Dawn, August 14th, 2022