LAHORE, Aug 29: At least 22 people died in the last 24 hours and around nine residential localities got submerged due to the floodwater entering Lahore city in Pakistan’s Punjab province, authorities said on Friday.
“At least 1,700 villages across Punjab have been inundated while grain crops on thousands of acres of land have been submerged,” the Punjab Government said in a statement.
The rescue teams of various institutions, as well as the army, have evacuated over one million people so far. “Extremely high floods in eastern rivers — the Sutlej, Ravi and Chenab — have also resulted in the loss of 22 lives so far,” the statement further added.
The floodwater in the Ravi River entered Lahore’s nine residential localities, inundating roads and damaging houses and other infrastructure.
“At the moment, the Ravi is full of floodwater, having flows of nearly 220,000 cusecs, whereas the designed capacity of the river is 250,000 cusecs,” Lahore Deputy Commissioner Syed Musa Raza said.
The government said unprecedented monsoon rain and the release of excess water from the Indian side swelled the three eastern rivers.
Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz visited the Ravi and expressed regret. “The crisis has been aggravated by the opening of spillways by India, but noted that the province’s early warning system was functioning effectively, allowing the timely evacuation of residents,” she said.
“We will plan to deal with floods from now on. We will exclusively focus on flood prevention in the future,” the chief minister said, aiming to improve infrastructure and dams.
India has opened all the gates of its Thein Dam on the Ravi River, prompting the Punjab administration to call in the Pakistan Army in eight districts — Lahore, Okara, Faisalabad, Sialkot, Narowal, Kasur, Sargodha and Hafizabad — of Punjab to assist civil authorities in rescue and relief operations, officials had earlier said.
Pakistan had also received a warning from India that it intends to release water from the rapidly filling Madhopur Dam. Both dams are on the Ravi River, which flows from India into Pakistan.
On Sunday, India communicated flood warnings to Pakistan through diplomatic channels on “humanitarian grounds”.
The authorities said up to 800,000 cusecs of water can pass through the Chenab River system in the next 48 hours, threatening widespread devastation.
Due to flooding in the Chenab, more than one million people have been evacuated and relocated to safe locations so far, as per the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA)
It further said in the Ravi, around 80 villages were submerged. Around 11,000 people have been evacuated and relocated to safe locations so far.
A total of 361 villages have been submerged by the overflowing Sutlej River. Nearly 127,000 people have been evacuated and relocated to safe locations so far. (PTI)
