CM forms bodies for clearing floodwaters from cities, towns

Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has constituted committees under relevant chief engineers to dispose of water from the flooded towns and cities located on both the right and left banks of the Indus River so that routine life could be restored there along with clearance of agricultural lands for the rabi crop.

“The people living in the camps are in real pain and their pain could only be healed by sending them back to their homes and that would be possible when water is cleared from their areas,” the CM said on Monday while presiding over a meeting regarding the disposal of floodwaters from the towns and villages of the province at the CM House.

He said that he had visited every affected area of the province and found that water had started receding. “We have to work out a plan for how to dispose of the stagnant water so that people living in the tents and along the main roads could be sent back to their homes,” he asserted.

He directed the irrigation department to drain off floodwaters in district Khairpur, especially in the talukas of Kot Diji and Mirwah. Shah also directed the Salinity Control and Reclamation Project (SCARP) division of the irrigation department to deploy 15 de-watering machines, arrange excavators and de-silt problematic farming drains.

He directed the energy department to talk to the Sukkur Electric Power Company to ensure an uninterrupted power supply to the SCARP pumping stations. The CM was told that 128,037 acres of Kashmore district were under water, of which 46 per cent had been evacuated.

The meeting was also told that Jacobabad had witnessed 34 per cent reduction in floodwaters, Shikarpur 48 per cent, Kamber-Shahdadkot 15 per cent, Larkana 34 per cent, Thatta 76 per cent, Ghotki 68 per cent, Sukkur 34 per cent, Khairpur 28 per cent, Naushehro Feroze 34 per cent, Shaheed Benazirabad 40 per cent, Sanghar 61 per cent, Umerkot 53 per cent, Mirpurkhas 39 per cent, Matiari 78 per cent, Tando Allahyar 49 per cent, Hyderabad 53 per cent, Tando Muhammad Khan 58 per cent, Sujawal 46 per cent and Badin had witnessed 37 per cent reduction in floodwaters.

The districts of Dadu and Jamshoro were yet to be cleared, the meeting was told. The CM constituted committees under relevant chief engineers who would be supported by the district administrations to start pumping out water from the calamity-hit parts of Sindh.