Flood fate of thousands lies with colonial-era Pakistan barrage

The fate of hundreds of thousands of people in Pakistan's southern Sindh province lies with a 90-year-old barrage that directs the flow of water from the mighty Indus River into one of the world's largest irrigation systems.

The government has declared an emergency to deal with floods caused by record monsoon rains that have affected nearly 33 million people -- many whose livelihoods depend on the Indus.

But just as the river provides during times of plenty, it can also take away.

Sindh has been pounded by weeks of torrential rain that have flooded farmlands across the province, but now torrents from swollen tributaries in the mountainous north are coursing down the Indus, due to arrive in coming days.

The river rises in Tibet and bisects Pakistan as it meanders more than 3,000 kilometres (2,000 miles) south to the Arabian Sea near Karachi.

"That water coming into the river is scaring us," Irshad Ali, a 42-year-old farmer near the city of Sukkur, told AFP as he lamented the date palms and vegetable patches he lost to the monsoon.

"A big storm is about to come."

Water from the Indus is already lapping over its banks in several places, and unless the Sukkur Barrage can control the flow, catastrophe will result.

Originally known as Lloyd Barrage, it was considered an engineering marvel when completed in 1932, capable of discharging 1.4 million cubic metres of water per second through 19 steel gates hinged between stone pillars.

It is the centrepiece of the city, a favourite site for tourists to photograph, and also provides a key bridge across the river.

"It has completed 90 years, whereas it had a 50-year guarantee," Syed Khursheed Shah, Pakistan's Minister for Water Resources, told AFP.

"So we are 40 years beyond its guaranteed life."

- Fortunate forecast -

Water is redirected by the barrage to a series of canals totalling nearly 10,000 kilometres that thread through farmlands, but years of neglect mean they are not capable of dealing with today's record volumes.

"Silt has been piling up and it is not being removed," said Shah, adding a lack of equipment meant the canals hadn't been dredged since 2010.

Metres-thick layers of silt leave less room for the water to flow, causing a backlog and likely flooding at the Indus.

Water is already flowing into the streets of Sukkur, seeping through the walls of buildings along Bandar Road, which leads to the barrage.

"The city is already four feet below the river levels," minister Shah said.

Engineers were scrambling Sunday to reinforce Ali Wahan levee, a crucial curve of the river Indus in the city that is threatened by the swollen river.

Optimism, and a bit of time, are the only relieving factors.

"This embankment is strong, machinery is available and the staff on alert," said overseer Shahid Hussain.

"The good thing is the timing," he added, explaining that flooding caused by local rain should have receded by the time the water from the north courses through.

But if it does rain again closer to home, the situation could change quickly.

"Fortunately the forecast suggests there will be no rains in coming days," Minister Shah said.

Pakistan's south braces for deluge from swollen northern rivers
Sukkur, Pakistan (AFP) Aug 28, 2022 - Pakistan's flooded southern Sindh province braced Sunday for a fresh deluge from swollen rivers in the north as the death toll from this year's monsoon topped 1,000.

The mighty Indus River that courses through Pakistan's second-most populous region is fed by dozens of mountain tributaries to the north, but many have burst their banks following record rains and glacier melt.

Officials warned torrents of water are expected to reach Sindh in the next few days, adding misery to millions already affected by the floods.

"Right now, Indus is in high flood," said Aziz Soomro, the supervisor of Sukkur Barrage -- a massive colonial-era construction that regulates the river's flow and redirects water to a vast system of canals.

The annual monsoon is essential for irrigating crops and replenishing lakes and dams across the Indian subcontinent, but it also brings destruction.

Officials say this year's monsoon flooding has affected more than 33 million people -- one in seven Pakistanis -- destroying or badly damaging nearly a million homes.

On Sunday, the country's National Disaster Management Authority said the death toll from the monsoon rains had reached 1,033, with 119 killed in the previous 24 hours.

It said this year's floods were comparable to 2010 -- the worst on record -- when over 2,000 people died and nearly a fifth of the country was under water.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, who cancelled a trip to Britain to oversee relief operations, said he had never seen anything like it before.

"Village after village has been wiped out. Millions of houses have been destroyed. There has been immense destruction," he said after flying over Sindh by helicopter.

Thousands of people living near flood-swollen rivers in Pakistan's north were ordered to evacuate from danger zones, but army helicopters and rescuers are still plucking laggards to safety.

"People were informed around three or four o'clock in the morning to evacuate their houses," rescue worker Umar Rafiq told AFP.

"When the flood water hit the area we had to rescue children and women."

Many rivers in the area -- a picturesque tourist destination of rugged mountains and valleys -- have burst their banks, demolishing scores of buildings including a 150-room hotel that crumbled into a raging torrent.

Guest house owner Nasir Khan, whose business was badly hit by the 2010 flooding, said he had lost everything.

"It has washed away the remaining part of the hotel," he told AFP.

The flood-swollen rivers were also yielding unlikely riches.

Locals scrambled to snag thousands of valuable cedar, pine and oak logs that had likely been illegally harvested in the mountains but were being washed downstream.

- Climate change to blame -

Officials blame the devastation on human-driven climate change, saying Pakistan is unfairly bearing the consequences of irresponsible environmental practices elsewhere in the world.

Pakistan is eighth on NGO Germanwatch's Global Climate Risk Index, a list of countries deemed most vulnerable to extreme weather caused by climate change.

Exacerbating the situation, corruption, poor planning and the flouting of local regulations mean thousands of buildings have been erected in areas prone to seasonal flooding.

The government has declared an emergency and mobilised the military to deal with what Climate Change Minister Sherry Rehman has called "a catastrophe of epic scale".

In parts of Sindh, the only dry areas are the elevated roads and railroad tracks, alongside which tens of thousands of poor rural folk have taken shelter with their livestock.

Near Sukkur, a row of tents stretched for two kilometres, with people still arriving by boats loaded with wooden charpoy beds and pots and pans -- the only possessions they could salvage.

"Water started rising in the river from yesterday, inundating all the villages and forcing us to flee," labourer Wakeel Ahmed, 22, told AFP.

Sukkur Barrage supervisor Soomro told AFP every sluice gate was open to deal with a river flow of more than 600,000 cubic metres per second.

The flooding could not come at a worse time for Pakistan, where the economy is in free fall and the former prime minister Imran Khan was ousted by a parliamentary vote of no confidence in April.

While the capital Islamabad and adjoining twin garrison city of Rawalpindi have escaped the worst of the flooding, its effects were still being felt.

"Currently supplies are very limited," said Muhammad Ismail, a produce shopkeeper in Rawalpindi.

"Tomatoes, peas, onions and other vegetables are not available due to the floods," he told AFP, adding prices were also soaring.

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Pakistan's south braces for deluge from swollen northern rivers; toll tops 1,000
Sukkur, Pakistan (AFP) Aug 28, 2022
Pakistan's flooded southern Sindh province braced Sunday for a fresh deluge from swollen rivers in the north as the death toll from this year's monsoon topped 1,000. The mighty Indus River that courses through Pakistan's second-most populous region is fed by dozens of mountain tributaries to the north, but many have burst their banks following record rains and glacier melt. Officials warned torrents of water are expected to reach Sindh in the next few days, adding misery to millions already affe ... read more