BADIN: Spillage from flooded Left Bank Outfall Drain wreaked havoc in Tando Bago taluka on Monday when the dyke of Puran Dhoro channal in Kolai town developed a massive breach sometime during Sunday night. The gushing water inundated vast farmlands in the taluka and posed a serious threat to hundreds of villages forcing people to move to safe places.

According to the area people, the dyke was intentionally broken to save lands of certain influential figures of Badin. Initially people saw a 50-foot-wide breach spilling water onto the nearby farmlands and tried to plug it but immense pressure of water widened it to 500 feet during the night, they said.

Sensing the threat to many villages and towns, Badin Deputy Comm­issioner Agha Shahnawaz sounded a high alert asking residents of over 100 villages to move to safe places. He said the situation at was “alarming” due to mounting pressure. Several hundred people managed to reach relief camps but scores of families defied the evacuation orders and refused to leave their villages, the DC said.

He warned that Malkani Sharif, Pangrio and other adjacent towns of Tando Bago taluka were under threat of heavy flooding.

DC says entire Tando Bago taluka under threat

It was gathered till Monday evening that nearly 100 villages had already been vacated and the migrating families had either reached relief camps or taken shelter in their relatives’ houses in Badin and other towns.

According to the LBOD authorities, the area of the breach was not under their jurisdiction since they had handed over its control to the irrigation department.

No officials concerned proceeded to the breach site to plug it.

While the army jawans were found engaged in rescue and relief operations in different areas, Navy personnel were reportedly given the task of plugging the breach.

The area people told local reporters that floodwater gushing out of the drain was bound to hit the entire Tando Bago taluka. They appeared sure that it was a “man-made tragedy” and not the natural one. Cuts were intentionally made to the left side of the LBOD to save certain influential people’s lands from flooding, they claimed, adding that the aim could be to reduce water level in the sections of drain in Jhuddo town and Hayat Khaskheli village. They demanded a judicial probe into the matter and action against the culprits.

If the breach was not plunged at the earliest, it would destroy the civic infrastructure and cause heavy damage to thousands of acres in Saman Sarkar, Khairpur Gumboh and Malkani Sharif union councils, they warned.

Six students injured as classroom’s roof collapses

Meanwhile, six students of class-VII were injured when plaster of their classroom in Nindo Higher Secondary School fell on them on Monday.

They were provided first aid at the school and then taken to rural health centre of Nindo Shehar for further treatment.

Minister orders plugging work

Sindh Minister for Irrigation Jam Khan Shoro along with Special Assistant to the CM MPA Arbab Lutufullah and other PPP leaders on Monday visited the site of reported cuts in Puran Dhoro channel and directed the officials concerned to get it plugged, our correspondent at Mithi adds.

According to the official statement issued from Bilawal House in Karachi, Mr Shoro during his visit said that it was very unfortunate that the breach had further inundated areas of Badin district. He asked the officials fortify the weak sections of Puran Dhoro and LBOD to avoid further displacement of people from Badin and other districts.

Published in Dawn, August 30th, 2022