SUKKUR: The visiting mission of the World Bank inspected ongoing work on the construction of a new T-head spur along Ruk loop dyke on the Indus River near here on Sunday.

The team comprising Juan Soler Cabado, Hendrik Arnold Vernon, Bilal Khalid and Aijaz Shaikh were briefed by officials of irrigation department about the progress on the work, said a press release issued.

“The Sindh Flood Emergency Rehabilitation Project (SFERP) is carrying out the construction work,” said Nisar Ahmed Sahito, deputy director SFERP.

He said the primary objective of the project was to respond to the impact of last year’s floods in Sindh by rehabilitating selected infrastructure with an aim to improve the climate change and disaster resilience of communities and rebuild better structures.

“The immediate effects of flooding include loss of human life, damage to property, destruction of crops and other plants, and loss of livestock,” said Naeem Arif, representative of the project’s consultant.

Resident engineer Hassan Pirzado said that the construction of a new T-head spur would prevent erosion along the embankment and deflect the current angle of the river.

“The absence or under-functioning of new T-head spur along Ruk loop bund can adversely affect the environment or introduce new problems,” he said.

He said that flooding could bring about multiple challenges including deterioration of health due to increase in waterborne diseases and unsanitary conditions.

Nasir Ali Panhwar, social safeguard consultant, said that when water passages were blocked began to stagnate, rendering people around such environments susceptible to infections from mosquitoes and other insects.

Environment specialist Farooq Memon said that the flooding could lead to greater runoff of contaminants such as trash, nutrients, sediment or bacteria into local waterways.

The WB mission also visited Shikarpur to review rehabilitation work on Shikarpur Drain branch.

Published in Dawn, September 4th, 2023