DADU: Cuts made into the embankment of Manchar Lake have been increasing pressure along Indus Link canal near Bhan Syedabad town after having inundated several villages in the union councils of Wahur, Arazi, Dal, Bubak and Jaffarabad in Sehwan taluka on Wednesday.
With a population of 150,000 and 10,000 flood victims, Bhan Syedabad is in grave danger from the floodwaters, forcing Jamshoro deputy commissioner Fareeduddin Mustafa to issue an alarm and request that the town’s citizens leave for safe havens.
As residents were being evacuated from the Karampur region by the district government, 100 more villages at Kotohar, Arazi, and Bakhtiarpur near Sehwan began to flood.
Iqbal Hussain, the assistant commissioner for Karampur, claimed that floodwaters would travel to Dadu if they reached Bhan Syedabad through breaks in the Indus Link canal.
To protect the town, a huge number of the town’s citizens assisted government representatives in raising the Indus Link canal’s dykes with the aid of heavy machinery.
A similar effort has been made to protect Sehwan from the lake’s floodwaters, which have inundated the nearby Qalandari CNG filling station and Toll Plaza. Machinery has been transported to crucial locations along Aral Wah in order to raise its embankment.
The N-55 freeway from Bhan Syedabad to Sehwan is entirely closed off by the highway police due to flooding.
Personnel of Pak Army and Jamshoro administration launched rescue operation and rescued a total of 250 people through boats from five union councils of Sehwan.
Floodwaters from two breaches in Manchar Lake and one in the Main Nara Valley Drain are exerting tremendous strain on the Indus Link canal between Sehwan and Bhan Syedabad (MNVD).
The canal acts as the town of Bhan Syedabad’s final line of defense, according to Jam Khan Shoro, the irrigation minister for Sindh, Indus Link was operating at full capacity.
Since the Indus River was showing signs of recession and water flows were being continuously released into the river through the Aral head and tail regulators of the lake, he was optimistic.
In the meantime, the lake continued to diminish on Wednesday, sinking to 122.2 RL at the latest gauge reading of 6 p.m. After two breaches in the lake’s embankment and another in MNVD near RD-10, the lake’s level started to fall.
Official statistics show that the lake’s level decreased from 122.5RL at 6 a.m. on Wednesday to 122.3RL at midday. Then, at 6 o’clock, it was at 122.2RL. The level was 123.25RL earlier and dipped to 123.2RL on Tuesday.
