BADIN: The protection walls along both banks of Qazi Wah — a major irrigation channel — have gradually vanished due to erosion during back-to-back floods over the last few years.

The walls were built along the banks across Badin city to save its people and their property from flooding in the event of heavy rains and resultant overflows.

During the 2022 unprecedented flood in Sindh, deluges in the canal had caused severe erosion of not only the protective walls, but also the road running parallel to the banks. Rainfall and flood-like situation in monsoons over the next few years continued to cause damage to the walls and structures they were supposed to protect.

The gradual ravage has now left the canal almost without its protection walls, causing fear among residents of the densely populated areas of the city. In their futile attempt, some people had recently poked bamboos at a small section of one of the banks to prevent or at least control erosion of land, road and residential structures.

“We, in small groups, volunteer to serve as night watchmen along the canal’s bank that is adjacent to our residential area as soon as a flood alert is sounded or heavy rainfall is forecast,” say Karamshi Kolhi, Gul Hassan Mallah, Mohammad Siddique Soomro and their other friends.

Speaking to this reporter, the youths said: “We have made the arrangement to keep a close watch on flows in the canal all the night so that flooding did not take the entire population by an unpleasant surprise”.

They said a breach in the protective walls of a canal used to be a common happening in monsoon or flood season but threat of flooding in this particular area happened to be a chronic and permanent issue that should be looked into on an urgent basis.

“Our homes and families are vulnerable to the constant threat,” they said.

They urged the district administration, executive engineer of Akram Wah Division and other relevant authorities, as well as elected representatives of the area, to take immediate measures for the reconstruction and rehabilitation of the protective walls to save a big population of Badin city from a feared tragedy.

Published in Dawn, September 12th, 2026