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HYDERABAD The barrage at Guddu which faced a massive flow of 962,000 cusecs on Friday appeared to have withstood the pressure and experts are of the opinion that Sukkur barrage will also be able to cope with the onslaught of about 600,710 cusecs.
However, the 'exceptionally high flood' at Guddu and 'high flood' at Sukkur have affected over 2,000 villages in Sukkur, Ghotki, Khanpur, Shikarpur, Larkana and Dadu districts.
About 130 villages in kutcha areas of Kashmore and Nawabshah have been affected and thousands of people have been evacuated. EDO (revenue) Asad Abro said in Larkana that 79 villages in the kutcha area have turned into islands, but inhabitants were reluctant to leave their homes. More than 90 villages in the kutcha area of Kashmore had been inundated, said revenue officer Imtiaz Mangi in Kashmore. He said that more than 100,000 people had been evacuated in the district.
After the high flood passes through Sukkur, the Kotri Barrage will have to face the brunt of 700,000 cusecs. In 1956, the barrage had successfully withstood the 'super flood' of 981,000 cusecs.
At the barrage, the water flow on Friday was 156,865 cusecs upstream and 132,660 cusecs downstream. The peak flood may reach Kotri on August 12.
Sindh Chamber of agriculture has expressed the fear that standing crops on thousands of acres of kutcha land could be destroyed by the flood. The only redeeming feature of the entire situation is that Sindh being at the tail-end had time to take preventive measures. So far, no major breach in the Indus has been reported from any part of the province, right from Guddu to Thatta.
The worst sufferers so far have been people of the kutcha area. The authorities have failed to persuade a large number of residents to move to safe places.
Meanwhile, condition at relief camps set up for affected people is reported to be far from satisfactory. People living in camps in Khairpur and Dadu protested on Friday against inadequate supply of food and medicines.
The entire irrigation department and district administrations are trying to cope with the crisis and they are being fully supported by the army.
In Hyderabad, authorities have so far set up 257 relief camps and 257 medical camps and arranged 483 boats.
A large number of excavators, loaders, tractors and generators have been made available along the banks of Indus. Sixteen personnel of irrigation and other departments deployed at each mile are keeping a watch. Army personnel, police and Rangers are also engaged in patrolling and assisting the irrigation department in the region.
Agencies add
The water pressure increased at Qadirpur loop embankment in Ghotki, K.K. and Tori embankments in Kashmore, Aqil-Agani and Nusrat loop embankments in Larkana and Faridabad and Al-Raja Gajeer embankments in Khairpur.
Personnel of Pakistan Army and Rangers and irrigation department officials began reinforcing the Qadirpur embankment as water pressure kept increasing.
By Friday the army had shifted more than 75,000 stranded people to safe places, including 25,000 people from Guddu, Kashmore, Sukkur, Ghotki and Qadirpur.
According to a statement by ISPR, 60 additional life-saving boats have been transported from Lahore to Multan and Sukkur for evacuation and rescue activities.
Saleh Farooqi, head of the Provincial Disaster Management Authority in Sindh, said authorities had evacuated about 200,000 people from areas where floodwaters could hit, but many more were still living in the danger zone.
“About 500,000 people living near the Indus do not realise the gravity of the situation, and they do not know how fast the water is rushing to their areas,” he said.
