Cut made in Manchar Lake to save Sehwan, nearby areas

Sindh Information Minister said Sunday that a cut was made in the Manchar Lake to save Sehwan town from flooding, but warned that at least five surrounding union councils will still be affected, Aaj News reported.

The Sehwan Airport, an installation of an oil company as well as Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah’s home village, are located in the five UCs – Bubak, Aarazi, Wahar, Jaffarabad, and Channa.

While addressing a press conference in Hyderabad, the minister said: “Around 125,000 people have to be displaced to near areas."

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“All the government machinery is on the ground. Attention is being given to most affected areas.”

The information minister’s presser comes after the Jamshoro Deputy Commissioner Capt (retd) Fariduddin Mustafa ordered the people near the lake to evacuate the area after the water level rose to a “dangerous level” in Manchar Lake.

“The embankments of Manchar Lake are likely to break at any time, so people are requested to evacuate the area and should go to safe places,” said the official handout.

“The next 24 hours will be very critical,” the DC said on Saturday. “We are keeping a watch on the banks day and night.”

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On Saturday, the Sindh irrigation department warned the water level of the lake, spreading over Jamshoro and Dadu districts, had reached 122.5 RL.

Sindh chief minister Murad Ali, during his recent visit to Manchar Lake, the largest natural freshwater lake in Pakistan, said that the water level in the lake will be dangerous if it reaches 123 feet.

The road links of many small towns and villages with Sehwan are already under water. The lake is receiving around 40,000 cusecs water from Main Nara Valley (MNV) drain and the hill torrents.

Earlier this week, Memon said that over one point three million houses have been damaged, and around one hundred thousand animals have also died in various areas of the province.

He said overall 234 Tehsils and nine hundred eighty-nine Dehs have been affected by rains.

The toll from cataclysmic floods in Pakistan continued to climb on Saturday with 57 more deaths, 25 of them children, as the country grapples with a relief and rescue operation of near unprecedented scale.

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Record monsoon rains and melting glaciers in northern mountains brought floods that have affected 33 million people and killed at least 1,265 people, including 441 children. The inundation, blamed on climate change, is still spreading. The proportion of children’s deaths has raised concern. On Friday, the United Nations children’s agency (UNICEF) said there was a risk of “many more” child deaths from disease after floods.

The country has received nearly 190% more rain than the 30-year average in the quarter through August, totalling 390.7 millimetres (15.38 inches). Sindh province, with a population of 50 million, was hardest hit, getting 464% more rain than the 30-year average.

Aid has flowed in from a number of countries, with the first humanitarian assistance flight from France landing on Saturday morning in Islamabad. But Pakistan’s largest charity group has said there were still millions who had not been reached by aid and relief efforts.

Initial estimates of the damage have been put at $10 billion, but surveys are still being conducted along with international organizations.

The United Nations has appealed for $160 million in aid to help tackle what it said was an “unprecedented climate catastrophe” as Pakistan’s navy has fanned out inland to carry out relief operations in areas that resemble a sea.