LARKANA: Sindh’s Senior Education Minister Nisar Ahmed Khuhro has said 400,000 to 500,000 cusec water would safely pass through the Sukkur barrage as it had withstood 1,200,000 cusec in 2010.

Talking to reporters after visiting the Akil-Agani and Nusrat dykes on Wednesday, he said 25,000 to 50,000 cusec had usually been released in canals while due to cuts in Punjab dykes, the water volume had spread in open fields. That was why now 400,000 to 500,000 cusec would reach at Guddu and Sukkur barrages, he said.

He said effective measures had been made at Akil-Agani and Nusrat loop bunds and other vulnerable points whereas 1.1 million cubic feet and 4,50,000 cubic feet stone had been stocked at those points to face any untoward situation.

He said people in katcha were not moving to relief camps, though the government had made arrangements to accommodate them in tents, but they had their own wisdom to either leave their houses or not, he added. They even in the event of super flood chose to live at elevated and higher locations, he said.

He said that in 2010 floods, the Sindh government had supported marooned people with Rs20,000 to each individual and if situation turned challenging, the government was fully prepared to face it.

He said PPP patron in-chief Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari had extended support of Rs10 million in the shape of food and shelter items to the flood affected people in Punjab.

In reply to a question, he said he had not issued instructions to closing schools situated close to the dykes’ areas. If camps were set up in schools, alternate arrangements would surely be made to continue education.

Answering a question, Mr Khuhro said the protesters in Islamabad had floated the idea of forming 35 provinces in the country. The 1973’s constitution was very much clear about it, stating that it was mandatory for the assembly concerned to first pass a resolution for carving out a new province. He said no one could dare to abrogate the constitution.

Earlier, briefing the minister, irrigation engineer Syed Noor Hussain Shah said that Akil-Agani and Nusrat loop bunds, Abad-Mungli and Ruk spurs, and Larkana-Sehwan and Moria bunds had been declared most vulnerable points.

Published in Dawn, September 18th, 2014