A report, based on surveys on the irrigations drainage networks in Sindh and their reinforcement works as well as the status of removing encroachments from the historic waterways, says that the scale of disaster will be the same if a monsoon season similar to 2011 revisited the province.
The report titled “Situation of Protection Embankments and Natural Waterways in the Context of anticipated Monsoon floods of 2012 in Sindh” by Peoples Accountability Commission on Floods (PACF), a grouping of several non- government organisations (NGOs), was presented at a press conference here Wednesday.
Prof Ismail Kunbhar of PACF said more than half of the province was either without a drainage network and if one existed it was in a dilapidated state.
“Since the construction of new barrages in the first half of the 20th century, the whole map of Sindh’s water channels and drainage networks changed, rendering the historic routes obsolete and subsequently encroached,” he added.
According to Prof Kunbhar, the Sindh Government although passed the Sindh Irrigation (Amendment) Act, 2011, declaring all the encroachments illegal yet the anti-encroachment plan lacked the resettlement of the population residing on the encroached lands. “The Dhoro Puran, Suhni Dhoro, Digri Dohor, Bhai Khan Dhoro, Hakro Dhoro, Pithoro Dhoro, Naro Dhoro and other waterways are in immediate need of restoration so that the burden could be removed from the LBOD,” he suggested.
PACF’s Taj Marri, a noted agriculturists, recalled how these historic waterways became redundant for a period of time and than the changing whether patterns have again made them useful.
“With the building of new barrages and a new irrigation system, the historic waterways like Haakro Nadi, which resembled a river, and Dhoro Puran began to become useless. Subsequently the people finding the dry land on the bed of these drains began to build residential dwellings in urban areas and grow crops in the rural,” he added.
Marri stressed that the floods in 2011 proved the futility of the LBOD as far as drainage of the storm water was concerned because the LBOD was not constructed to serve that purpose.
He said the government should form a comprehensive plan which should include quantifying the encroachers, taking steps for resettlement of the residential encroachments and finally carrying through the anti-encroachment drive at full tilt before the monsoon in 2013.
“The LBOD’s capacity is only 4,600 cusecs and that of the Dhoro Puran, which passed from Mirpurkhas and ends in the Runn of Kutch, is 20,000 cusecs if restored to its historic state,” he said.
According to Marri, the old drain was up to 300 feet wide and 25 feet deep before its capacity was consumed by the encroachments and silt. PACF’s Faheem Raza expressed satisfaction over the repair work being carried out at the LBOD at a cost of Rs 1.5 billion, however, he called for attention towards the need of complete desilting of the drain.
He also emphasised on urgent steps for remodelling the LBOD as the World Bank had accepted the faults in its design and had also sponsored a 5-year study being carried out by Louis Berger Consultants. THE PACF concluded that the province drainage and irrigation system was in need of complete overhaul but one which was done in consultation with the local people.
