DRAINAGE and the ultimate disposal of agricultural effluent are complex problems. Sindh has faced the catastrophic consequences of flawed design and substandard execution of mega drainage projects — mainly the Left Bank Outfall Drain and the Right Bank Outfall Drain. Wapda has designed, executed, and monitored these poorly conceived projects. The LBOD system has become a flooding menace in the districts of lower Sindh, while the RBOD has devastated the once-pristine Manchhar Lake.

At the tail end of the Indus Basin Irrigation System, Sindh is unfairly seen as a sink for effluent from the basin’s irrigation network. The World Bank-financed National Drainage Programme, initiated in 1997, proposed a national surface drainage system to transport the Indus Basin Irrigation System’s saline effluent to the sea, using Sindh as a conduit. This prescription collapsed when the multi-donor-funded LBOD project failed miserably to handle the agricultural effluent of just three districts.

A critical component of the Cholri weir on the drain suffered severe scouring soon after becoming operational and eventually collapsed. This debacle forced proponents of the national surface drainage........

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