Daily Times

Flood water threatens Sehwan

On Friday, a slow-moving wave of floodwaters overwhelmed 50 villages close to Gupchani in the Nawabshah district, while authorities were on high alert to stop flooding in Sehwan town on the right bank.

Thousands of people were forced to leave their homes in a hurry and seek safety on higher land on both sides of the mighty river. To prevent the town of Mehar in the Dadu district from being flooded by the flood flow coming from Khairpur Nathan Shah, locals were building dikes.

In Nawabshah, floodwater also inundated the Nawabshah-Sanghar route. The situation grew worse as surrounding outfall drains overflowed. Locals alleged that flooding was still occurring in the area.

Floodwater from Balochistan went through the Main Nara Valley (MNV) drain into the Manchhar lake close to Sehwan in Jamshoro district after destroying the districts of Kambar-Shahdadkot and Dadu on the other side of the Indus.

According to Jamshoro Deputy Commissioner Capt (Retd) Fariduddin Mustafa, the next 24 hours would be crucial, and the government might order citizens to leave their homes and seek safety somewhere else.

The largest freshwater lake in the nation, Manchhar, has a rising tide of water. The locals and irrigation workers continued to work on sandbagging and adding stones to the lake’s levees. The most vulnerable area to floods was the town of Bubak.

Flood water threatens Sehwan

Five union councils close to the lake, according to officials, might be flooded if Manchhar’s embankment burst or it began to overflow. Flooding also posed a threat to the Sehwan airport and Syed Murad Ali Shah’s hometown in Sindh.

According to a local, numerous communities in Dadu were up to 11 feet underwater. Residents in Mehar were constructing a dike nearby the already-flooded Khairpur Nathan Shah in an effort to stop floodwaters from entering the town, the official claimed.

Further north, when flooding loomed imminently, evacuation continued in the Warah town of Kambar Shahdadkot area. On foot and in trucks, tractors, and other vehicles, thousands of people were observed departing the town.

After the district’s deputy commissioner issued an advisory urging residents to seek out safer areas, the evacuation process got underway. The only way out of the town was via Kambar Road, which was still encircled by water. Navy helicopters joined the rescue effort in Warah as well.

Meanwhile, in the Mirpurkhas area, dozens of nearby villages were submerged due to a 100-foot Puran river breach at Teddy Mori, close to the town of Jhudo. The single road connecting the town to the other districts, the Jhudo-Mirpurkhas road, was being crossed by the water.

Indus rising

The Indus River, which was experiencing medium flooding, saw an increase in water level as well. The penultimate barrage on the Indus before the sea, Kotri, was predicted to have a peak water flow of 600,000 cusecs, according to irrigation officials, who claimed that there was no danger of riverine flooding.

As new torrents from the northern areas of the country entered the lower riparian province, the flood level at the three barrages of Sindh—Guddu, Sukkur, and Kotri—showed a small increase, according to official statistics.

Guddu had a flow of 558,218 cubic feet per second (cusecs), up from 540,493 cusecs on Thursday; Sukkur saw a flow of 531,865 cusecs, up slightly from 529,817 cusecs; and Kotri saw a flow of 447,024 cusecs, up from 438,162 cusecs the day before.

The flood, according to the irrigation officials, has now risen to the river’s middle level. While Kotri experienced flow rates of more than 900,000 cusecs in 2010, some estimates place the water level above 1.1 million cusecs.

Marooned people’s plight

According to the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), record monsoon rains and melting glaciers in the northern Himalayas caused floods that killed at least 1,208 people, including 416 children.

The military claimed to have saved an additional 2,000 people trapped by rising floodwaters, but the Edhi Foundation issued a dire warning, noting that “people are starving” and that “90% of people are still awaiting some form of relief.”

The head of the Edhi Foundation, Faisal Edhi, who has spent the previous nine days in the flood-affected districts, called the situation bleak and urged the government to relax a long-standing ban on some foreign NGOs.

According to Edhi, “the situation is quite severe and it appears that it will get worse.” Given the tremendous size of the floods, Pakistan is having trouble responding. According to the government, 33 million people, or 15% of the population, have been impacted.

The UN agency for children, Unicef, warned on Friday that many more kids could pass away from illness. Diarrhea, cholera, dengue, and malaria are among the water-borne, lethal diseases that are currently at high risk of spreading quickly, according to UNICEF Pakistan Representative Abdullah Fadil at a news conference in Geneva. As a result, he said, “there is a chance of many more child deaths.”