Daily Times

Disaster was averted in Johi city of Sindh on Saturday after a breach – created by unidentified men – was replugged, according to national media reports.

The breach, which was created on the Johi branch canal, caused pressure on the canal’s ring dyke, which could have led to the drowning of homes nearby. Scores of residents from nearby areas were seen attempting to plug the breach through their own resources to save the city from sinking. Authorities have also made a breach in the Larkana-Sehwan bund to prevent floodwaters from entering Dadu city. In another incident, flash floods resulted in a breach in the Dal branch and the floodwaters entered a grid station in Bhan Saeedabad and hit the city’s ring dykes. A large number of people had gathered at the sight and tried to strengthen its embankments.

It is pertinent to mention that the water level in Sindh’s two barrages is decreasing rapidly, however, a high flood was passing through Kotri Barrage on Saturday. The floodwater was overflowing at some points at the Kotri Barrage.

Meanwhile, the diversions made in Pakistan’s largest lake, Manchar, have not worked as the water levels of the Indus River rose and the lake’s water began to flow backwards instead of into the river. The Indus link seam drain near Tilti also cracked on Saturday due to the pressure of the lake water, posing a threat to the city of Bhan Saeedabad, while the displacement of citizens continued. Strong water flows from Manchar Lake have caused destruction, affecting more than 150,000 people in more than 500 villages across seven union councils in Sehwan. While the Pakistan Army is conducting rescue efforts in the affected areas, there are many locations where people are trapped in water.

A 150km stretch of land from Qamber Shahdadkot to Manchar Lake is completely submerged and hundreds of villages in the Khairpur Nathan Shah, Wara tehsils, Sujawal, and Dadu tehsils are now underwater. The bogies of the relief train between Budapur Railway Station and Khaot have derailed as a result of water on the tracks.

Record monsoon rains and melting glaciers triggered the disaster that has shown no sign of abating for the last month. The United Nations and Pakistan have linked the extreme weather to climate change; some 600,000 people have fled their homes. As many as 33 million people of the 220 million South Asian nation have been affected in some way by the floods that swept away houses, roads, railways and bridges and submerged around 4 million acres of farmland. Pakistan has estimated the financial loss so far at around $30 billion. Health Minister for Sindh, Azra Fazal Pechuho, said a total of 856,000 patients had been treated since the floods began, mostly at mobile hospitals because more than 1,200 health facilities were under water.

Conditions including dysentery, diarrhea, malaria, skin diseases, and dengue fever are already widespread, she told a news briefing earlier this week. Earlier, two shipments from the United Nations carrying emergency medical supplies and flood relief equipment for victims of the catastrophic floods across Pakistan arrived at the Jinnah International Airport in Karachi.

“The shipments contain 15.6 metric tons of cholera kits, water and multipurpose tents that can be used as medical tents,” a WHO press release said. According to the organisation, the supplies – estimated at a total value of $174,816 – were delivered to Pakistan with the support of the government of Dubai and the International Humanitarian City. The Dubai government and the International Humanitarian City, it said, have established an air-bridge linking the UAE and Pakistan, which is now fully operational with several rotations having already arrived in the country to deliver critical humanitarian supplies in response to the recent flooding.