Five out of 19 gates of Rice Canal Regulator have been washed away by the rapid flow of irrigation water due to which water has started eroding both embankments of the canal posing serious danger to the residents and crops on both sides of the canal.
Garhi Khuda Bux Bhutto is located on the right side of the canal and Naudero on the left side and both the areas may come under flooding due to pressure on the canal embankments.
The regulator was constructed in 1945 during British era and worked very smoothly since then, but last year one of its gates fell down as it had completed its age and four more gates were washed away due to increase in irrigation water on the demand of the growers enabling them to sow paddy saplings.
Water level limit in Rice Canal here should be 14 feet during Abkalani season but a visit to the regulator on Saturday showed that it was flowing at 13.3 feet, 9 inches below level due to dangerous condition of all other gates and weak position of both the banks.
Rice Canal was dug up to facilitate the area growers who wanted to sow paddy for producing rice and this has greatly benefited the cultivators. All the old gates were repaired two years back and now it has proved that the repair work was of inferior quality due to which five gates have been thrown out by the fast flow of water. No stone pitching work has been carried out here since last many years and old pitching has also been removed by the water flow due to which immediate threat to both these areas is imminent along with other nearby villages and towns if emergency measures are not taken, an irrigation officer told PPI on condition of anonymity but most of the irrigation engineers did not respond to the calls constantly made to them since Friday.
Rice Canal is the major source of water where thousands of acres of agricultural land is irrigated and millions of people earn their livelihood in this poverty-ridden era annually. The bridge of this regulator is also in shambles.
The condition of Dadu Canal Regulator and its bridge has also gone worse like that of Rice Canal regulator. It has also not been repaired by the irrigation department engineers. Instead, poor quality stone pitching work was carried out which may also be washed away during the current season or the next, the area villagers have already alleged.
Sahab Khan Shaikh, Mumtaz Sethar of Mazdoor Ittehad, Ghulam Hyder Narejo of PPP-Shaheed Bhutto, Manzoor Mangi of Sindh Adabi Sangat and others have deplored the negligence of irrigation department officials for their failure to repair the said gates and banks of these most important regulators well on time for which they should be taken to task, they demanded. They said if emergency measures were not taken then it was feared that the dykes will be broken causing widespread destruction of standing crops and other civilian properties.
They further said that millions of rupees were annually allocated to the irrigation department for strengthening dykes but due to massive corruption these funds were either embezzled or low quality work was carried out which must also be probed thoroughly without any further delay. They demanded immediate repair of the damaged regulators, their gates and bridges.
