Mirani Dam flood victims demonstrate with vigour

The victims of Mirani Dam floods staged a sit-in in front of WAPDA House to get the compensations for the lands, crops and houses destroyed due to “flawed” design of the dam. They announced to set up the sit-in camp for an indefinite period till their demands were fulfilled. The affectees, who had traveled from Turbat, Balochistan to Lahore said they were being denying the compensation for the damages caused by backflow of water higher than predictions of WAPDA. They accused the WAPDA engineers for not taking their concerns seriously which they had told to them before construction of the dam. According to affectees’ statement WAPDA had claimed that only 1100 people would be affected because of dam. However contrary to claims of WAPDA, when first flood came on June 26, 2007, all the houses of Union Councils Nasir Abad and Nodiz were destroyed. Moreover the backflow water levels reached to 271.4 feet which WAPDA had claimed would remain at 244 feet. The affectees said the provincial government’s survey also approved the compensation for the crops, gardens, houses and land destroyed in floods of 271.4 feet level.
The Commissioner Mekran had assessed the damages to be Rs 684,214,440/- for houses destroyed from 264 feet above sea level and 271.4 feet above sea level and Rs 3,390,580,800/- for destroyed fruit gardens. However, they said, WAPDA was not compensating to their damages. A number of rights groups and activists announced supporting the affectees in their struggle and a protest demonstration is also announced to support them. One of such demonstration, announced on Facebook, would happen at Chairing Cross on Saturday (today) at 4pm. When the Mirani Dam was opened in 2006, it faced great local resistance due to fears about its backflows, which became the cause for the great damage suffered during the 2007 floods.