SEHWAN:
The overflowing water from Pakistan’s largest freshwater lake has reached the Indus Highway between Sehwan and Dadu and the area will soon be cut off, said officials on Tuesday.
The embankments of the Manchhar Lake were given two more cuts on Monday as the single breach given on Sunday failed to reduce the water pressure.
The flood level at the lake, which is spread over 200 square kilometres, reportedly shot up to 126 reduced levels (RL) yesterday after which the irrigation authorities decided to break open the lake from a reduced distance (RD) 50 and 52. A day ago, the cut was given at RD14.
A fourth breach in the lake’s embankment was made today at Zero Point that may inundate many more areas including Bhan Sayedabad. Three people were swept away by the gushing waters after the breach was made but were rescued by locals.
“We have widened the earlier breach at Manchar to reduce the rising water level,” provincial irrigation minister Jam Khan Shoro told Reuters on Monday.
Dozens of villages, situated near Zero Point of Manchhar Lake were inundated following the breach made by officials. The residents started evacuating their homes and carried whatever they could to save their possessions from flood waters.
“Till yesterday there was enormous pressure on the dikes of Johi and Mehar towns, but people are fighting it out by strengthening the dikes,” district official Murtaza Shah said, adding that 80% to 90% of townspeople had already fled.
Those who remain are attempting to strengthen existing dikes with machinery provided by district officials.
The waters have turned the nearby town of Johi into a virtual island, as a dike built by locals holds back the water.
Several families were reportedly stranded by the flood waters and there no rescue operations were undertaken. Residents claimed the government was not issuing proper guidance about the prevailing situation following the breaches made in the lake’s embankment.
Crops fields on either side of Indus Highway have also been inundated.
According to locals and officials from the irrigation department, Dadu would soon be cut off from Sehwan as the water from Manchhar lake is expected to inundate the region.
The rising waters have also inundated the nearby Sehwan airport, civil aviation authorities said.
“People are leaving their homes as the level of water coming from the lake going to rise,” said Zahid Hussain Memon of Bagh Yousuf Memon village, located near Sehwan city.
Already 100,000 people have been displaced from their homes in the effort to keep the lake from overflowing, an outcome that authorities fear could affect hundreds of thousands more.
The Indus Highway is already flooded near Khairpur Nathan Shah, making road travel to Larkana from Karachi, Hyderabad and Dadu near impossible.
With yet more rain expected in the coming month, the situation could worsen still further, a top official of the United Nations’ refugee agency (UNHCR) warned.
“We fear the situation could deteriorate,” said Indrika Ratwatte, the agency’s director for Asia and the Pacific, adding that Pakistan’s weather officials forecast more rains for the coming month.
“This will increase challenges for flood survivors, and likely worsen conditions for nearly half a million displaced people, forcing more to abandon their homes.”
The UNHCR is working with Pakistani authorities to step up humanitarian supplies if more people are displaced in the area, Ratwatte added, while the foreign ministry said three more UN relief flights arrived on Tuesday.
Manchhar breached to ease pressure
The spilling water from the lake entered and drowned five union councils (UCs), Jaffarabad, Talti, Channa, Aarazi and Bubak. Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah’s village Wahar and Sehwan airport also became exposed to the flooding water.
On Saturday, Manchhar deluged Jhangara and Bajara rural towns, one of which is the birthplace of the chief minister’s late father, Syed Abdullah Shah, who also served as the chief executive of the province in the past.
According to the provincial government and the irrigation offices, the flood situation at Manchhar is expected to last for at least eight to 10 days. The lake’s water will be released to the Indus River in a higher quantity only after the reduction of the flood level in the river.