BADIN, Aug 6 A 'breach' made in a vulnerable part of the Left Bank Outfall Drain at the RD-265 near Pangrio four days ago, has widened to 100 feet and water gushing out of the breach is inundating fields and moving towards villages.

During recent rains, the drain discharged a huge quantity of saline water from different parts of Sindh into the sea. The breach was reportedly made by the LBOD authorities on Monday to divert the water to Dhoro Puran to “reduce pressure on the drain and save the coastal area from possible inundation”.

When contacted, LBOD executive engineer Khair Mohammad Dahri denied that it was an artificial breach and said that no loss of crops had been caused by it.

However, Badin District Coordination Officer Agha Wasif said that the breach had been deliberately made and it would be plugged by Friday.

He said that no one should be worried because it was not likely to cause any damage.

Khalil Ahmed Bhurgari, the chairman of the area water board, has ordered an inquiry into causes of the breach.

People coming here from Pangrio gave information about the breach. Journalists in the town said that despite having been informed, the LBOD authorities had not taken any action so far. They said that any further delay in plugging the breach could make the work more difficult.

LBOD officials in Badin have been accused of not taking any interest in plugging the breach on the pretext that the areas likely to be affected are in Mirpurkhas and Tharparkar districts, and not in Badin.

The mighty drain network developed as many as 53 breaches during a cyclone in 1999.

Later almost all the breaches were plugged, except a few with tidal links, which brought about unprecedented destruction, including loss of human lives.