Dear Ms. Drilon,

Thanks for your email and also the acknowlegment of the receipt.

The purpose of this email is to inform the BIC regaring recent Rowed-Kohee flooding occurred on 21st August and 28th August, 2003. After the end of six-year drought, these two flood events were devastating because of the wrong technical project design. So far we have recoded the following facts and details of the damages:

1. Loss of life: At least three persons died.
2. Loss of housing: about three hundred houses were washed because of the sheer force of combined flooding in the riverine belt.
3. Ponding of floodwater in the west side: More than 20,000 acres of agricultural land was submereged because of the failure of the super-passages to convery Rowed-Kohee safely across the main canal. Many villages like Mapaal, Qaboolwali, etc have become now islands and their mobility is totally cut off. Besides that, the farmers will not be able to cultivate the land owing to the ponding and will thus have to bear significant income losses.
4. Breach in the flood protection embankment around Sokkar: The flood protection embankment around Sokkar village was breached around 4:00 am on 21st August, 2003. The whole village will have to work inorder to fill the breach and thus avoid catastrophe. If they were not succeeded, the loss of life, property, housing would have been unprecedented. The breach confirms the claim that flood protection embankments are not only problematic in terms of lack of drainage arrangements, constraints in mobility, loss of privacy, suaffocation, etc, but are not technically sound and will be breached sooner or later.
5. Breaches in flood carrier channels and flooding in the command area: Flood carrier channels failed to convey the water across the command area safely and breached at many points and thus flooded and destroyed cotton crop in the newly irrigated area. Jat Gadi Wah, Mati Mohi, Suri Lund, Bhigwari, Vehowa, etc are few FCCs that we have fully documented. Besides that, a lot of bank and soil ersion is also occuring and local communities are loosing their precious land.
6. Failure of the Indus Highway: The traffic on the Indus Highway was stopped at many causeways and then the alternative route of the main canal service road was used for many days. The failure of the Indus Highway is clearly linked with the lack of bridges/siphons for the cross-drainage of floodwater at the Indus Highway. The causeways constructed for the purpose of cross-drainage failed because floodwater continued to flow for weeks over the Indus Highway and thus blocked the traffic. The Indus Highway is one of the busiest highway linking the extreme north of Pakistan (Peshawar) to the extreme south (Karachi). Such blockage will not only disrupt trade and market links but also pose a danger to the main canal because the heavy traffic opts to use the main canal road in the event of flooding.
7. Flooding in the riverine belt: Most affected region by the recent flooding is the riverine belt. About 75,000 acres of land was flooded and standing crop of cotton was totally destroyed. In some of the areas in the riverine belt, the farmers did not even cultivate the crop as an anticipation of the project induced flooding. Mobility is now totally jammed because of heavy silt deposition.
8. Breach in the main canal: On 28th August, the main canal was breached because of the flooding of vehowa hill-torrent. This news was also released by national television network. We have not yet visited area wherein the main canal was breached.

We have video documentation of almost all of these damages and losses. We are, however, planning to undertake full and comprehensive documentation of recent flooding, failure of technical designs and associated livelihood losses and environmental degradation. We intend to present it as an evidence to the inspection panel.
In the context of recent flooding and concrete evidences available in this regard, we would like to put the following demands:

1. Losses and damages of the recent flooding should be fully documented and valued. In the context of these losses/damages, the previous internal economic return rate (IERR) of this project should be reviewed.
2. A comprehensive environmental and social impact assessment of the project should be immediatly undertaken. This process should also include technical option assessment.
   

Regards,

Mushtaq Gadi