MITHI: Several hundred residents of the areas on either side of the Left Bank Outfall Drain (LBOD) stopped a team of district administrations of Tharparkar and Badin and irrigation department from breaching the drain’s dyke at RD-211 and forced the officials to leave without doing any damage to the dykes of the swollen drain.

The enraged people, including women whose settlements fall within the two districts on both sides of the drain, gathered on Tuesday at RD-211 (Zero Point) and other points where the officials planned to breach the drain’s dykes to reduce pressure of floodwaters, and forced the officials to go back.

They made it clear to the officials that they would have to cross over their dead bodies first to breach the dyke and inundate their homes and hearths, and stood guard along the drain throughout the night and the following day armed with their legal weapons to foil further possible attempts to breach the drain’s dykes.

The protesters’ leaders told media persons that any breach in either side of the drain would unleash massive destruction in both the districts, which had already been ravaged by floodwaters.

The officials’ team reportedly sought directives from high-ups of Sindh government and then moved heavy machinery from the site to avert the situation from escalating further.

The irrigation department’s officials and lawmakers of Mirpurkhas district including PPP MNA Mir Munawwar Ali Talpur, MPA Mir Tariq Ali Talpur and others believed that the only option left with them was to breach the LBOD dyke to divert floodwaters from marooned areas.

PPP MPA Arbab Lutfullah, special assistant to chief minister on sports, said that a committee formed by the chief minister had recommended that the breach at the Zero Point would have negative implications for the areas concerned.

He said that the committee would further assess and identify the points where the breach would cause minimum harm to the area people.

Published in Dawn, September 15th, 2022