Chagatai Khan: Flood in Sindh, LBOD & Experimenting With The Lives of Poor. (Courtesy: Zulfiqar Halepoto)

HYDERABAD, Aug 17: Wapda proposed to the Sindh government to raise embankments of the Left Bank Outfall Drain (LBOD) over a year ago so that it can carry excessive rainfall and saline water, but Sida Managing Director Mohammad Ihsan Leghari said that Wapda had submitted only the report of its consultants without authenticating it. Another proposal requiring rehabilitation of whole the LBOD system called as integrated management organisation at a cost of Rs9 billion is lying with the Sindh government. The plan was worked out by a joint team of the federal and Sindh governments a year ago, according to a Wapda official. However, Sindh government`s position is that it has been handed over the LBOD with a faulty design. The recommendations are with the Sindh Irrigation and Drainage Authority (Sida) which is having a separate study of the LBOD to be completed by early 2013. The LBOD, which is a lengthy system of drains having different components, was completed in 1997. It has a capacity of 4600 cusec of water with a provision of certain amount of rainfall. However, rapidly changing weather patterns have upset all estimates of engineers and resultantly crops, human settlements and livestock are hit very hard by implications of drain. Before falling in Arabian Sea the LBOD — also known as spinal drain — travels in two different directions through Kadhan Pateji Outfall Drain (KPOD) and Dhoro Puran Outfall Drain (DPOD). Wapda`s member water Raghib Shah told Dawn from Lahore on phone that the DPOD was supposed to dispose of spinal drain`s 2000 cusec of water into Shakoor Lake whose 80 per cent area falls in Indian territory and 20 per cent in Pakistani territory. “Remaining 2600 cusec goes to sea through KPOD which is connected with a tidal link.” The Sindh government claims that drain is built with a defective design and drain gets backflows of water whenever there is a high tide in the sea. The drain does not have provision of rainfall runoff in different components [saline water generation in different districts connected with LBOD] especially that of coastal region of Badin with the result that water overtops the drain and leads to breaches it. In addition to it growers cut banks of drains to dispose of rainwater accumulated on their land. According to Shah, initially Nawabshah component of the LBOD was given to the Sindh irrigation department in 1999, Sanghar and Mirpurkhas components in 2000 and spinal drain and tidal link in 2001. “It is the Sindh government that controls/maintains the LBOD now,” he said. Had the study done by Wapda been implemented and its banks` height would have been raised, it would have been able to carry 150mm of rainfall. “Its water carrying capacity will be increased to 9000 from 4600 cusec,” he said. This study was conducted following rains in 2003 and Wapda made a set of recommendations after initiating a study in 2007 and completing it in 2009. REFERENCE: Wapda-Sindh row delaying rectification of LBOD’s faulty design By Mohammad Hussain Khan | From the Newspaper August 18, 2011 http://www.dawn.com/2011/08/18/wapda-sindh-row-delaying-rectification-of-lbods-faulty-design.html

Witness with Quatrina: Why wasn't Flooding prevented? (Part I)

URL: http://youtu.be/u8JRf8_VoS0

Witness with Quatrina: Why wasn't Flooding prevented? (Part II)

URL: http://youtu.be/ng3xI7xDDqc

Witness with Quatrina: Why wasn't Flooding prevented? (Part III)

URL: http://youtu.be/ZJFTZF9QPN8

“We submitted our proposal to Sida on Feb 10, 2010. We were then told that Sida is having a separate study conducted through consultants for a left bank region drainage master plan and our study will be merged with that,” he said. “If there is any problem we are open to discussion. We can sit with Sindh government officials to discuss the issue and sort it out,” he asserted. He confirmed that Wapda had proposed that until rehabilitation programme of Rs9 billion worked out jointly by a federal and Sindh governments team is approved. Sindh Secretary Irrigation Khalid Hyder Memon has rejected contentions raised by Wapda`s member on the ground that the provincial government was handed over the drain with a faulty design and the Sindh government has recorded its reservations on day one. “Wapda may build dam but canal infrastructure or drains are quite different systems,” he said. He disagreed with Mr Shah that the drain was design to accommodate 75mm rainfall runoff. “It is actually just 50mm of rainfall that can be received by the drain and Wapda didn`t keep in mind that they are building drain in the coastal region where rainfall can be as high as 400mm to 500mm,” Mr Memon said. According to him, maintenance is the secondary thing. More important are sections, flow and alignment of drains, he said, adding that what the irrigation department could at the most do was to clear weeds. “People of Badin are so scared of the LBOD that they don`t accept anything and they call for restoring old routes of drains like Dhoro Puran which has been closed,” he said. He reiterated that the irrigation department would now go for a short-term strategy to identify old contours. “We will ask our consultants Lois Berger, who are dealing with master plan of drainage works, to submit their findings on the LBOD component of Sindh within certain time limit. “We are currently facing a disaster. Let this be over and we will be talking to our consultants. We have already informed Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani in this regard to seek federal government`s support.” A number of breaches in the LBOD network have played havoc in Badin district in the wake of recent torrential rains, displacing hundreds of people and washing away standing crops on a large swathe. Presently high tide in the sea has stopped flow of drain water in the sea, turning water flowing in reverse direction. REFERENCE: Wapda-Sindh row delaying rectification of LBOD’s faulty design By Mohammad Hussain Khan | From the Newspaper August 18, 2011 http://www.dawn.com/2011/08/18/wapda-sindh-row-delaying-rectification-of-lbods-faulty-design.html

Witness with Quatrina: Floods in Umerkot - Sindh (Episode 2 - part I)

URL: http://youtu.be/DKzvazCeP_4

Witness with Quatrina: Floods in Umerkot - Sindh (Episode 2 - part II)

URL: http://youtu.be/oBdJ2cFH-n0

Witness with Quatrina: Floods in Umerkot - Sindh (Episode 2 - part III)

URL: http://youtu.be/E1oGuMNUaUg

“No Lesson Learnt From History” - The Left Bank Outfall Drain (LBOD) project was intended to drain saline ground, surface water, and storm run-off from an area of approximately 0.5 million ha in three districts of Sindh falling on the lower left side of Indus River. The project was conceived to control water logging of 1.27 million acres in the districts of Nawabshah, Sanghar and Mirpurkhas through a network of open-surface drains that convey the saline effluent pumped by tube wells as well as tidal drains via a spinal drain and a tidal link into the Arabian Sea. The project was started in 1986 and its 80-85 percent work was completed in December 1999, seven years behind schedule, with the remaining work to be taken under the National Drainage Programme (NDP) by 2002.1 The cost of the project exceeded from Rs8,000 million to Rs30,000 million. Due to defective alignment of the tidal link, the drainage effluent instead of going into the sea, flowed backward and sideways that started destroying lands and wetlands. The project-induced problems like flooding, sea intrusion, loss of crops and agricultural land, reduction in fish catch and loss of lives have surfaced with one claiming responsibility. Thirty-two people were killed as a result of the LBOD since it was launched in 1997, while 50,000 acres of agricultural land in eight union councils had been wasted by salinity or water logging, 10,000 fishermen lost their livelihood, four vast wetlands—two of them have been internationally recognized—have been degraded causing damage to biodiversity, and about 52 species of fish in the area had also been damaged. Both the government and the IFIs, including the ADB, did not even identify the problem that the wetlands are seriously threatened with and that the tidal link has played havoc on agriculture lands. The Government of Pakistan accepted the losses but was not ready to take the responsibility. The ADB claims that the safeguard policies are central to achieving sustained development impact and poverty reduction.2 But a critical review of the loan documents and other related papers such as, EIA reports, study of the safeguard policy documents, civil society feedback and research, community complaints, field work and meetings/ dialogue with the community and line department officials reveals that not only the project carries serious implementation flaws but also suffers from gross violation of commitments as agreed in safeguarding the principles of the bank, in terms of protection of the environment, indigenous communities and vulnerably displaced groups. Not on a single item was the local community consulted or any information shared with it in local language. Neither was any consultative dialogue nor a discussion was held with CSOs, CBOs and NGOs at the local level. The ADB, instead of looking at the failures of the LBOD, has further extended its financial loaning and support to the Government of Pakistan and Sindh in various other projects. Nobody is learning any lesson from past failures.3 All affected communities and stakeholders are still protesting the failure of the project and are demanding from the government and donor agencies, specially the ADB and other IFIs, to compensate the damages that the Project has caused to the environment and livelihood of the local communities, specifically the fishermen community and agriculturists. REFERENCE: Untold Realities: How the ADB Safeguards have been violated in Bangladesh, India, Laos, and PDR Pakistan by Zulfiqar Halepoto* October 2006 http://www.adb.org/safeguards/Untold-realities-NGOForum.pdf

Witness with Quatrina: Journey through the flood stricken areas of Umerkot - Sindh (part I)

URL: http://youtu.be/DIXw_759764

Witness with Quatrina: Journey through the flood stricken areas of Umerkot - Sindh (part II)

URL: http://youtu.be/vwxf6YfVtRg

Witness with Quatrina: Journey through the flood stricken areas of Umerkot - Sindh (part III)

URL: http://youtu.be/zxc-aBJdsbo