Daily Times

Two cuts were made to the Larkana-Sehwan (LS) bund on Friday to prevent floodwaters – gushing from Manchhar Lake and Main Nara Valley Drain (MNVD) breaches – from entering Dadu city and its neighboring areas as the death toll from the climate catastrophe rose by 36, a private TV channel reported.

According to authorities, water from these breaches was threatening Dadu city, Bhan Syedabad, and Sehwan taluka – the constituency of Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah.

The irrigation department has planned another cut into the bund which would be made towards the Tati area of Sehwan. Floodwaters that breached MNVD’s RD-10 and flows coming from two cuts at Manchhar Lake accumulated near the Indus Link Canal along the LS bund of the Indus River.

In recent days, two breaches were deliberately made in Manchhar Lake’s protective dyke to divert the flow of floodwaters draining into it towards less populated areas and prevent flooding in the densely populated cities of Sehwan and Bhan Syedabad. However, the flows from the Manchhar Lake submerged seven union councils of Sehwan and its toll plaza, disconnecting the taluka from the main section of the Indus Highway and the rest of the districts located along the highway, according to Jamshoro Deputy Commissioner Fareeduddin Mustafa.

In Dadu’s Mehar and Johi towns, ring bunds have been established to stop the floodwaters from entering, Dadu MNA Rafiq Ahmed Jamali said.

Meanwhile, reduction of flows in the Sukkur barrage continued on Friday with up and downstream flows recorded at 199,020 cusecs. Kotri barrage upstream flows were recorded at 604, 099 cusecs at 6am today. However, by noon, they reduced to 604, 087 cusecs. Downstream discharge at Kotri was recorded at 583, 282 cusecs.

According to the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), 36 more people died across the country over the last 24 hours, taking the death toll since June 14 to 1,391.

As many as 33 million have been affected in a disaster blamed on climate change that has left hundreds of thousands homeless and caused losses of at least $10 billion, officials estimate.

Separately, the National Flood Response Coordination Centres (NFRCC), in its recent daily update, said that Qambar Shahdad Kot, Jacobabad, Larkana, Khairpur, Dadu, Noshero Feroz, Thatta and Badin were the districts worst-affected during the floods.

Quetta, Naseerabad, Jafarabad, Jhalmagsi, Bolan, Sohbatpur and Lesbela suffered the most damage in Balochistan, while Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Dir, Swat, Charsadda, Kohistan, Tank and Dera Ismail Khan were reeling from massive destructed caused by the torrential rains. The NFRCC said that the restoration of roads, railways, and other infrastructure was underway across the country.

Furthermore, it said that hot and humid weather would persist in most parts of the country in the next 24 hours. “However, rain and thundershowers are expected in isolated places of Upper Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Gilgit-Baltistan, Kashmir, and adjoining hilly areas,” NFRCC added.