Sindh, Pakistan -- Several Dead As Floodwaters Completely Cover Town in..
..Sindh.
SUKKUR / HYDERABAD: Ghouspur, a town in Kashmore district is now flooded. Nearly all residents have moved out.
A woman and her two small children were swept away by floodwater in Mochi Muhalla of Ghouspur.
Reports here of homes and shops being robbed in town. Several armed men have been robbing groups of people moving out of the town.
Flood-affected people from the kutcha and Kutcha Bunder areas have moved to relief camps in Sukkur where more than 700 families are getting food and medicines.
The Sindh livestock extension has set up camps on the Ali Wahan bund and other embankments for treating cattle.
People of Karampur, Dari and Badani have also left the towns and Kandhkot and Thull are being evacuated.
The water level at Guddu started receding on Monday evening and its flow upstream dropped to 1,118,428 cusecs from 1,148,728 cusecs in the afternoon.
The flow of Indus at Sukkur barrage was reported at 1,130,986 cusecs upstream and 1,094,986 cusecs downstream. The surge caused a breach in the Bunder wall and water started accumulating on a road near the municipal waterworks. However, Rangers and local people plugged the breach.
More than three-fourth of Kutcha Bunder residents have moved to safe places and the remaining are camped outside the wall to keep an eye on their homes.
The Indus Highway is inundated between Shikarpur and Jacobabad and water released from the Begari Sindh feeder has also caused suspension of rail traffic.
Despite a decrease in the flow at Guddu, provincial Minister Zahid Ali Bhurgari said the irrigation authorities had decided to cut embankments at two or three places to save residential areas and infrastructure in case the situation worsened.
At Kotri barrage, meanwhile, efforts are being made to cope with the situation when the ‘super flood’ reaches there and flows downstream where a large number of people live in the riverbed.
On Monday, water was released into Sukkur barrage’s off-taking channels, including the rice and Rohri canals.
The authorities released 1,650 cusecs of water in four canals which had earlier been kept closed because of a rain forecast. The canals have a capacity of 38,000 cusecs.
Three of the canals are on the right of the Indus and the KB feeder which feeds Karachi is on its left.
Sindh Chief Secretary Fazalur Rehman was optimistic that the reduction in the water flow at Guddu would continue.
National Assembly Speaker Dr Fahmida Mirza visited the Sujawal-Munarki embankment, the most vulnerable point downstream Kotri, along with irrigation officials.
Rohri Circle Superintending Engineer Babar Effendi said 70 to 80 per cent of the kutcha area on the left bank of the Indus was under water.
He said dykes at Bakhri loop, Bhorti, SM Mile-49, Dadu-Moro bridge J-spur, Mud bund, Bhanote, old Hala, Khyber, Sekhat and Kalyan downstream Sukkur were in a vulnerable position. He said erosion had taken place at those places in the past.
Stones are only being dumped on the embankments because further work to strengthen them is at present not possible. Stones being brought from Jheeruk in Thatta will reach the area on Wednesday.
The main protective embankment ends near Unit-4 in Latifabad area of Hyderabad, followed by the plains of the Indus.
Some housing schemes launched in the kutcha area near Kohsar, which are still unpopulated, are facing threat of inundation.
In Latifabad taluka, about 2,600 people living along the river have registered with the revenue department. About 1,210 people registered in Qasimabad taluka have left the kutcha area.
Right Bank Outfall Drain (RBOD-II) Project Director Rafiq Memon said the incomplete structure was safe, but preventive measures were being taken.
The town of Ghouspur in Sindh is totally underwater and there is little relief in sight.Authorities are left to deal with these problems with very little or no financial help at all.