Flood havoc aggravated by man-made diversions, breaches and interference with the waterway and flood flow of the Indus

Flood havoc aggravated by man-made diversions, breaches and interference with the waterway and flood flow of the Indus

The cataclysmic destruction of 22% area of Pakistan, specially the Indus basin, took place due to man-made diversions, breaches and interference with the waterway and flood flows of the Indus River at the time of  extremely high floods. The accuracy of the breaches is confirmed  by NASA photo of 7 September 2010.  In NASA photo, it will be noticed that “the new course of Indus River is created by diverting the floodwaters to the North. The water has inundated parts of Baluchistan and upper Sindh”.

The Newspapers, the farmer Prime Minister of Pakistan and MQM leader Altaf Hussain, Mushahid Hussain have also stated that wide spread destruction by floodwater is due to breaches and diversions by influential people to save their lands and property. The breaches gushed out floodwater and destroyed the areas where floodwater could not cause damages. In this unscientific attempt of breaching embankments, all safe areas are inundated by floodwater.

The Board of Revenue at the time of West Pakistan, had special rules and regulations for the management of floods. They have prepared bund Manual. No body was allowed to breach any flood protective bund, embankment, dyke without the permission of the competent authority that is a qualified engineer of the rank of Executive Engineer and above after visiting the site.

 Here in this case, the embankments of the mighty Indus River, and canal embankments are breached in self interest by people without permission from the competent authority. This is the main reason for large scale destruction, and devastation. In Sindh, Indus River is running on a ridge, and the adjoining irrigated areas are lying at a low level. The breaches in the Indus can play havoc in such areas.

 It is a crime to divert  floodwater by interfering in waterway, make unauthorized breaches in river embankments and in irrigation canals, that in turn, destroys public land, crops, houses, infrastructure and other properties. Non-professionals do not know, whether the breaches will help them, and to what extent, or do more harm and destroy other safe areas. Such action requires professional knowledge and experience. It appears nobody bothered to super wise flood to pass down safely. No body visited the bunds or embankments before floods as required in the bund manual. No body maintained these infrastructures asrequired. Annual verification report is required to certify that embankments are in good shape.   

In the past, floods of similar intensity caused no such historical damages. The floodwater was confined to the 14 miles wide waterway of the Indus River. Floodwater flowed with in its embankments and safely discharged into the sea. In 1994, when I was Chairman IRSA, similar flood occurred, and 88.1 maf of water passed down safely below Kotri barrage. This discharge is nearly two times higher than the present flood discharge of about 49 maf that passed down below Kotri barrage so far causing havoc, death and destruction in the Indus basin. The reason for safe passage of 88.1 maf of floodwater is that no man-made interference were then made. Similarly, the following extremely high floods passed down stream Kotri to sea;

In 1976, about 64 maf

In 1983  about 43.8 maf

In 1988  about  44.i7 maf

In 1991  about  42   maf

In 1992  about   69.19  maf

In 1994  about   81. 21 maf

In 1995  about   61. 09 maf

In 2005  about   24.5 maf

In 2007  about   15.82  maf

From the above data it is clear that floods of higher intensities passed down to sea without causing such devastation as now caused by this flood. It shows something is wrong with supervision. It seems that man-made interference is involved. All this should be verified at site and a true picture given to the general public explaining the causes of the unusual damages and destruction this year. .   

“A satellite photo of the floodwater taken on 15 August 2010 at a time when Punjab had been ravaged and Indus was just being diverted near Jacobabad. Note how Indus joined

Chenab North West of Multan at multiple points. All pondage areas East of Chinab are dry”.

             

The photographs reveal that the Indus River floodwater has adopted two prong wings or two courses or waterways near Guddu reach of the Indus. All breaches are unauthorized man-made. The new Indus River course inundated vast areas. All these breaches were made arbitrarily in self interest by influential.

 The man-made cuts are breach of national interest and security. It tantamount to treachery. No doubt that the floods were massive, but the damages could have been limited as in the past similar flood made no such damages. In the past, floodwater safely passed below Kotri to the sea. This year lands of Southern Punjab and Sindh are destroyed. Such illegal acts hold back the donors, as there is no national interest but self interest. 

It will be surprising to note that no damages took place in 1994 when I was Chairman IRSA. At that time, about 88.1 maf of floodwater passed safely below Kotri to sea in flood season.  The Indus River waterway was wide enough to discharge safely the peak flow of about 88 maf of water downstream of Kotri. The Newspaper Dawn dated 18 September reports that Tori bund was breached on August 7 and Surjani embankment on August 26. Subsequently, Ghouspur bund and Haibat bund were breached. It further reports that in 1976, over 1.2 million cusecs of floodwater safely passed down Guddu barrage. This year the discharge is less than that but flood damages are colossal as 4 million people are affected.

Based on satellite images, statements by politicians, Newspapers reports and the massive flood damages besides the adoption of two courses by the Indus show that the influential land owners destroyed Pakistan in self interest. They caused irreparable loss to the country. It may take another 60 years to rebuilt damaged infrastructure under best governance free of corruption. But that seems to be impossible unless a miracle happens.

The country was already on the path of ruination due to bankruptcy in planning water resources on correct lines, in time. Moreover, no body cared for about 20 lurking catastrophes of water issues of mega nature. The country is crippled due to load shedding. There is water scarcity. No multipurpose dams are built to control floods and generate power in 36 years after the construction of TarbelaDam. The canal system has become obsolete and highly wasteful, wasting about 50 maf of water equal to 8 times the storage capacity of Basha Dam. The lands are becoming saline and saline-sodic and there is no surface and sub-surface tile drainage as required. Storage are rapidly silting as there is no water shed management. Efforts are made to build infeasible and controversial dams like Kalabagh and Akhori Dam.

 The unique Katzarah Dam and excellent Guroh Dop dams are ignored for lack of knowledge and investigation, Water Accord’s paras 2, 4, 6 and 14 (e) are not implemented even in 19 years. This created unending inter-provincial water dispute. WAPDA built absolutely wrong mega projects that were abandoned like Kachi Canal from Mithon Kot. Drainage schemes were abandoned by WAPDA like SCARPs and NDP wasting Rs 1000 billion and precious time. There is no concept for water management.

 There is no body to correctly advise the President that small dams are no good. Small dams cannot solve our multiple water issues. How can small dams control such massive floods, generate power and serve the purpose of irrigation with short life span and negligible quantity of stored water. A 1000 small dams are not equivalent to one Basha dam in service value. Small dams are extremely costly. The function of small dams is water shed management to check soil erosion.

 Terrorists have destroyed economy. Prices have gone sky high and people moan about it. About 15 people commit suicide daily, even with children. Things have come to the limit that a man tried to commit self-immolation in front of Prime Minister Syed Yousaf Raza Gilani’s residence in Multan due to poverty.  All these need revolutionary steps to achieve food security and jobs otherwise we expect a bloody revolution.

 Over and above all these serious water issues, the current flood turned into the earth’s worst disaster by made-man interference, making unauthorized breaches. This tragedy destroyed Pakistan to the extend that it may never recover.

Let the reader think over it, how can these terrible multiple water issues including floods havoc be set right. This needs that we should change our attitude and set our self right. But this is not possible. So wait for the horrible consequences in the very near future.

The great omission and incompetence on the part of the previous Governments and the concerned organizations is that no flood control multipurpose unique dams like Katzarah and Guroh Dop were built. It is shocking to learn that Munda Dam purely planned as power dam is now declared by WAPDA as flood control dam to check floods in Kabul River and protect Nowshera and Chasadda from flood destruction. This is ridiculous. It shows bankruptcy in planning and in investigation by ignoring Katzarah and Guroh Dop. Our experts are specialists in wrong planning.

Moreover, the timber mafia has denuded about 40% of forest area that causes flash floods.

Moreover, the country’s natural drainage system has disappeared due to negligence. All major drains and small drains are chocked due to encroachments. Therefore, during rains and floods, the water overflows in sheet form damaging vast areas. No body bothered to maintain these drains as required by the “Canal and Drainage Act of 1887”. No body followed the Bund Manual. Most of these drains are classified drains that require proper look after like canals. They need maintenance. No one is allowed to interfere with the flow and waterway of these drains. One is supposed to get prior permission from the irrigation department if a bridge or culvert is desired to be built across the drain. No one is aware of all this. This also aggravated flood flow in sheet form, as there were no waterways to carry the drainage effluent as drains were blocked.

Besides all the above problems, and the criminal act of breaching embankments, there is yet another crime being committed by the same landlord mafia who breached embankments. This crime is theft of water or the unauthorized use of water direct from the Indus River. Here again, the influential land lords, politicians and others draw water directly from the Indus River by pumping water. Besides this, they have installed tube wells near the bank of the Indus that indirectly draw water from the Indus. This is one of the reasons for shortage of water and inter-provincial water disputes.

It is learnt that about 17.4 maf of water is lost/stolen from the Indus and is illegally used in Punjab and Sindh. This huge loss of water takes place between Chashma barrage to Guddu barrage and between Guddu to Kotri barrage. The Government has not investigated the reasons for these losses. The Government has taken no action against this crime that perpetually leads to shortage of water that results in inter-provincial water disputes. Illegal practice of water use by influential is customary. Therefore breaches is no crime for them.  

River training works and mega dams needed to regulate flow of the Indus and its safe passage to sea.

The Indus is one of the largest rivers in the world. Its flow is highly erratic that urgently requires regulation by dams for timely irrigation water supply to crops, and for flood control besides cheap power generation. The minimum flow of the Indus on record is 9000 cusecs and the maximum flow on record is 1.2 million cusecs. There is only one dam on the Indus at Tarbela built in 1974. This dam has already silted up by 5.0 maf (43%) before 2010 floods. After the record floods, another 0.5 to 0.8 maf might have been silted up.

Rise in the Indus bed level due to barrage construction and silt deposition

Six barrages are built on the Indus, namely Jinnah barrage, Chashma barrage, Taunsa barrage, Guddu barrage, Sukher barrage and Kotri barrage. The Indus carries a terrible sediment load. Due to barrage construction, the bed of the Indus is raised by silt deposition. This necessitated the construction of embankments in the province of Sindth to protect lands from the Indus due to inundation. Due to the rise in riverbed, the Indus River runs on a ridge, the adjoining lands lie at a lower level. Therefore, it is highly essential to protect the low lying lands from flooding or inundation due to intentional or unintentional breaches. Moreover, the embankments need raising and strengthening and regular inspection.

Yet another phenomena is observed that the cross-sectional area of the Indus waterway seems to be reduced due to sediment deposition as compared to the cross sectional area of the Indus in the past. This is because in the past heavy discharges safely passed down Kotri, like 88.1 maf in 1994, 91.86 maf in 1995, and so on. The reason could be that man-made breaches were not made. It is very essential that hydraulic survey of the Indus waterway is carried out during the winter to see changes in river bed elevation and in cross-sectional area of the waterway of the Indus. This is required for raising of the river embankments.     

The influential landlord, politicians and others are given lands in the kachi areas. Besides stealing water to irrigate these lands, these owners have built bunds to protect their lands from the possible breaches in the Indus embankment. Some of these people feared danger to their land from the flood that was increasing in severity therefore they breached the main embankments at specific places with the foolish idea to protect their lands. This as a result destroyed vast areas in the Indus basin.

The NASA photo of 7 September 2010, the satellite photo of floodwater taken on 15 August 2010 diverting the flow of Indus near Jacobabad and the statements of responsible leaders of the status of Prime Minister of Pakistan and of Mushahid Hussain and Altaf Hussain confirm  man-made interference with the flood flow of the Indus by making breaches. The Indus has an established waterway to the sea. But the flow of the Indus, its waterway and the drainage of the Indus has been split into two wings. The two images from the satellites are attached as proof for examination.

Lands in the Kachi area should never be allotted as gratis. This land should have been used for growing forest. Similarly, forests should be grown on the naked mountains along Tarbela’s 97 Km long lake to improve environment and increase forest area by at least 10%.                                    

Warning

I hereby inform that Global warming, glacier melting and climate change will play hell in Pakistan by floods of more severity. It is predicted that such floods will come in the near future and I fear Pakistan is not prepared to face it as it has no flood protective infrastructures and flood protection measures. I therefore urgently request to take the following measures;

Immediately build Katzarah Dam, Basha Dam on the Indus and Guroh Dop Dam on Panjkore/Swat River.

Impose total ban on forest cutting. Grow forest to cover 10% area of Pakistan.

Revive the choked waterways of all natural surface drains in the country and maintain them as required by the Canal and Drainage Act of 1887.

Maintain properly and regularly the Indus River embankments. Weak portions must be strengthened. Irrigation engineer must issue certificate before flood that embankments are in order and barrages are in good condition. No breach should be allowed. 

Flood warning must be made in time. Flood flow must be watched by helicopter.

ANNEX.