SANGHAR, Sept 26: The breach in Rohri Canal near Haji Aalam Dero village, which had occurred a day ago, inundated by Wednesday more than 70 villages and standing crops of cotton, sugarcane, chilli and banana on thousands of acres.

Hundreds of villagers shifted to safer places, government schools and hospitals and along roadsides in the absence of any serious efforts for plugging the breach.

Sindh Minister for Irrigation Nadir Akmal Laghari accompanied by Secretary Shuja Junejo and chief engineer reached the breached site where angry villagers had earlier attacked the superintendent engineer Mithal Abbasi forcing him to run away. The minister said that officials found responsible for the breach after a inquiry would be punished.

Villagers from Sui Kundar, Aalam Dero, Karim Dino Kori, Sher Mohammad Dero, Thahim Goth, Yar Mohammad Dero and Ghulam Rasool Dero who had shifted to safer places said they were still waiting for official help.

The nazim of union council Kumb Darhoon, Faraz Ahmed Dero, told journalists that millions of rupees were spent recently on raising the canal’s embankments, in which substandard material was used.

The affectees complained that the district government had failed to help evacuate or provide food and medical facilities to them.

Haji Mukhtiar Ahmed Shoro, a farmer of the area, said that there was still more than ten feet water in the canal and the breach could not be plugged until the water level reached one to two feet.

He said that losses to crops ran into millions of rupees because the crops had been destroyed completely. The resumption of the canal would take at least seven to 10 days, he said.

The Rohri Canal was fed by River Indus at Rohri. Its length is 208 miles with water carrying capacity of 10,887 cusec in Kharif and 9,900 cusec in Rabi with a bed of 243 feet wide.

The canal irrigates more than 2.5 million acres of agricultural lands in Khairpur, Nawabshah, Sanghar, Hyderabad and Tando Allahyar.