HYDERABAD:
The high flood at the Guddu barrage continued to witness a gradual drop on Tuesday with a further reduction of around 20,000 seen in 24 hours since Monday evening. On the other hand, the deluge climbed by around 11,000 cusecs at Sukkur barrage and 16,000 cusecs at Kotri barrage during the same time.
According to the Lahore based Flood Forecasting Division, the torrent’s quantum decreased from 624,456 cusecs on Monday night to 605,456 cusecs in 24 hours after attaining a peak of 635,759 cusecs in the upstream at 6 am on Monday. The barrage was discharging 575,706 downstream.
With a moderate surge, Sukkur barrage 571,800 cusecs, up from 560,890 cusecs a day ago. Likewise, the reading of 284,325 cusecs enhanced to 300,853 cusecs at Kotri barrage. The former barrage is releasing 518,120 cusecs and the latter 289,098 cusecs downstream.
The Sindh government claimed to have prepared itself to confront a super flood of 900,000 cusecs or above, citing warnings of up to 1.1 million cusecs flood received from the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA). However, Guddu has registered a highest point of 635,759 cusecs this year. This level seems unlikely to show a rise because water level in the rivers of Punjab has been constantly going down.
On Tuesday evening, Panjnad barrage was discharging 211,384 cusecs and Taunsa barrage 141,908 cusecs towards Sindh. This torrent will reach Guddu before passing through Sukkur and Kotri en route to the Arabian sea.
Bridges on Indus
The National Highway Authority (NHA) has inspected all its four bridges on the Indus River in Sindh, declaring on Tuesday that the structures are robust enough to easily sustain the flood pressure. Member South Zone National Highway Authority Ramesh Raja told The Express Tribune that he led the inspection of all the bridges from the command area of Guddu barrage to Kotri.
According to him, all those bridges have the capacity to withstand up to 1.4 million cusecs of the deluge. He informed that not only traffic is moving smoothly on the bridge but a large number of people have been thronging to those sites to watch the flood. Raja said the NHA has set up monitoring camps at each of the bridges and that their officials have been working in close coordination with the Sindh Irrigation Department.
The bridges include 1.58 kilometers long Sukkur bridge; 1.22 km Khairpur-Larkana bridge; 1.32 km Qazi Ahmed-Amri bridge; and 1.58 km Hyderabad bridge. He told that one more bridge on the Indus in Jamshoro and another one between Ghotki and Kandhkot are under construction. The former will be linked with the M-6 Sukkur-Hyderabad motorway.
