News
Canal Breach Floods Settlements Near D.I. Khan, Damaging Houses and Roads
By Mariam Khan
Real Estate Analyst
3 min read
A major breach in the Chashma Right Bank Canal near Paharpur tehsil in Dera Ismail Khan flooded nearby settlements, damaging houses, shops, boundary walls, roads, and agricultural land. At least 70 people and 40 animals were evacuated from the affected areas as district authorities, irrigation officials, and rescue teams responded to the emergency.
This Is the Same Canal Breaching for the Second Time This Year
This is a genuinely important pattern worth understanding clearly, since this is not this canal's first breach in this same general area this year. In March 2026, the Chashma Right Bank Canal developed a breach of approximately 150 feet at RD 148+500 near Mochianwala in the same Paharpur tehsil, attributed at the time to porcupine burrows weakening the canal bank, which similarly sent water into nearby houses and damaged crops before requiring roughly two weeks of emergency repair work. That earlier breach was declared fully repaired, with the canal restored to operational status by mid-March. This September breach represents a second, separate failure of the same canal system within the same district roughly six months later.
What Authorities Did in Immediate Response
District officials moved to reduce pressure in the canal by halting water release from Chashma Barrage and operating escape channels, including Baloot Escape, Bandkorai Escape, and Pasha Escape, specifically to prevent further damage to residential areas, infrastructure, and agricultural land downstream of the breach point. Rescue 1122 teams were mobilised to the site to carry out evacuation announcements and relocate affected residents to safer ground, with road connectivity between affected localities also disrupted by the flooding.
Why This Recurring Pattern Matters Beyond a Single Incident
A major irrigation canal breaching twice within the same year, in broadly the same stretch of its route, points to a structural vulnerability in this specific section of the CRBC system rather than a purely random, one-off event. Given that the March breach was attributed to burrowing animals weakening the embankment, and this September breach has occurred again in the same general vicinity, the underlying question of whether the canal's embankment integrity along this stretch has been adequately addressed since the earlier repair remains a genuine, open one.
What Remains Unconfirmed
The specific cause of this September breach, and whether it relates to the same underlying vulnerability identified after the March incident, has not been confirmed. No timeline for completing repairs and restoring the canal to operational status has been detailed, though the March breach's roughly two week repair timeline offers a rough point of comparison for how long a comparable repair might take.
What This Means for Property and Land Along the CRBC Corridor
Settlements and agricultural land along vulnerable stretches of the Chashma Right Bank Canal, and particularly this specific section near Paharpur and Mochianwala that has now experienced two separate breaches within roughly six months, should be treated as carrying genuine, documented, recurring flood exposure rather than a remote or purely theoretical risk. Property owners, farmers, and residents in settlements near this canal corridor should treat canal embankment integrity as an active, ongoing concern worth monitoring directly with WAPDA and district irrigation authorities, rather than assuming a single repair fully resolves the underlying risk for this specific stretch going forward.