SUKKUR: A study is being carried out on Sukkur barrage to look into ways of protecting and strengthening the 80-year-old structure, lifeline of the province’s agricultural sector, and enable it to withstand increasingly dangerous levels of flood in the river under the Water Sector Improvement Project (WISP) phase-I of the Sindh Irrigation and Drainage Authority (SIDA), said Barrage officials here on Monday.
Sukkur Barrage withstood a flow of over 1.1 million cusecs of water against its capacity of 900,000 cusec during last year’s flood. Water experts believe the barrage’s structure needs to be strengthened in view of increased flood levels recorded last year. They propose to reopen its 10 gates closed in 1945 after the barrage started operation in 1932 to cope with increased flows.
According to Chief Engineer Irrigation Noor Muhammad Baloch, the capacity of Guddu barrage required to be increased because it had successfully withstood 1.2 million cusecs of water last year.
Former secretary of irrigation Idrees Rajput said 10 gates of Sukkur barrage had to be closed and a bifurcated point was created upstream to reduce flows of water with strong silt content. "It had to be done because right bank canals were having heavy silt content," he said.
He said an island was created upstream with a submerged regulator. "It is used to bifurcate flow of waters with lesser silt towards the right bank canals and the remaining flow towards main current. A tail channel which was needed to operate this system efficiently was also created," he said.
But now, he said, there was insufficient flow of water and silt deposits. Therefore, the consultants would also examine this issue, said Idress Rajput, who is associated with the NDC.
Chief Engineer Baloch lays emphasis on increasing capacity of Sukkur barrage which saw a super flow of 1.2 million cusecs twice, in 1976 and 2010, he said.
The study would also include an environmental management plan to discuss issues relating to water shortage and its impact on flora and fauna and measures to mitigate them.
It would also see how to address seepage problem. WISP official Zahid Junejo said the consultants` team was conducting baseline study.
They will collect data of last 100 years historical record. About the problem of silt deposits on the right bank canals, he said the consultants would see how to revive the use of tail channel and island.
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