DERA GHAZI KHAN, Aug 7 Mismanagement and distant command in case of Taunsa Barrage is stated to be the cause of inundation of Kot Addu and other towns in Muzaffargarh.
Taunsa Barrage distributes irrigation water to Muzaffargarh district. Before May 2005, it was under the supervision of the chief engineer of Dera Ghazi Khan Division. In 2005, the Taunsa Barrage emergency modernisation and rehabilitation project was launched with a foreign funding of Rs11 billion and the supervision of barrage was shifted from chief engineer to project manager who resides in Lahore.
Taunsa Punjnad Canal and Muzaffargarh Canal originate from the left on eastern side of the barrage and their capacity to hold water is 12,000 cusec and 8,000 cusec, respectively. Dera Ghazi Khan and under-construction Kachhi Canal originate from western side of the barrage.
Sources told Dawn that after completion of the project, the supervision was not shifted to the authority concerned.
Irrigation Department chief engineer Maher Ameen said that after completion of the project supervision and charge of Taunsa Barrage was not shifted to the relevant authority and deadline for this purpose was December last.
Explaining the causes of high level flood in Taunsa Barrage, Ameen said silt was not removed from the barrage and its pond level was not reduced before the rainy season.
Another official stationed at Taunsa Barrage said on the condition of anonymity that there was massive mismanagement at Taunsa Barrage, as it was being supervised by distant command of the project manager and not by the irrigation department. The suspension of SDO Mian Anjum by Chief Minister Shabaz Sharif in the beginning of the flood season discouraged the whole staff working at the barrage.
Reliable sources told Dawn that flood in Muzaffargarh would not be controllable until the water level in Taunsa Barrage falls to 250,000 cusec. It will take time to plug the breaches in the canals.
According to the flood control centre, more than 600,000 cusec water was still passing through Taunsa Barrage.
Fazal Rab, a political activist who worked for the people displaced during rehabilitation and modernisation of Taunsa Barrage, said engineers disturbed the natural paths of Wahowa, Kora and Sanghar hill torrents when Chashma Right Bank Canal was dug up. As a result, hill torrents started flowing straight to the river instead of an arid zone between Sulaiman Range and Dera Ghazi Khan Canal and this increased pressure on the river.
He said these hill torrents also brought silt to the river, which reduced its pond area. He said the authorities were asked several times to desilt Taunsa Barrage and portion of the river near the barrage, but no one cared.
The 4,000 feet long breach in left dyke of Taunsa Barrage near Abbaswala primary school has turned into another river, which has a width of at least 20 kilometres and length of 40 kilometres. As a result, Daira Din Panah, Kot Addu, Sanawan, Mehmood Kot, Gurmani, Qasba Gujrat, Qasba Ghazi Ghat and Khar Gharbi were inundated, says a local Zafar Buzdar .
Locals alleged the criminal negligence and alleged corruption of high ups of irrigation department and the contractor who built weak dykes near Taunsa Barrage were responsible for the devastation in Kot Addu tehsil and other areas. They said the same contractor was again given the task to plug the 4,000 feet breach in the left margibal bund.
They said shock absorbers at Taunsa Barrage - a vast pond area and emergency storage areas - were still empty. Irrigation officials did not discharge floodwater in these areas to save standing crops of influential people.