Lahore, Aug 29: At least 22 people died in the last 24 hours as several residential areas of Lahore remained submerged due to floodwaters entering the city, the first time in almost 40 years, in Pakistan’s Punjab province, authorities said on Friday.
Pakistan’s most populous province, Punjab has been reeling under severe floods for almost a week and at least 1,700 villages across the province, including the Sikh sacred site of Kartarpur, are inundated.
“Flood water has entered Lahore after 38 years. After the 1988 floods, the water flow measuring 2,20,000 in the Ravi at 7 am today is so far the highest one,” Lahore Deputy Commissioner Syed Musa Raza told journalists.
The government said the unprecedented monsoon rain and the release of excess water from the Indian side swelled the three eastern rivers — the Sutlej, Ravi and Chenab.
Northwest India and Pakistan’s Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces have been witnessing torrential rains for over 10 days resulting in almost all rivers and tributaries flowing over danger levels.
“If there is no discharge of water from India downstream, we can expect a reduction in the flows in the next 2-3 days,” he said.
“At least 1,700 villages across Punjab have been inundated this week while standing crops on thousands of acres have been destroyed in the devastating floods,” the Punjab government said in a statement.
The rescue teams of various administrative departments, as well as the Pakistan army, have evacuated over one million people so far. “Extremely high floods in eastern rivers have also resulted in the loss of 22 lives in 24 hours,” the statement added.
On Friday, floodwaters entered Lahore, situated on the banks of Ravi, and inundated 13 residential localities, damaging roads, houses and other infrastructure, officials said.
Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz visited the Ravi banks and noted that “the province’s early warning system was functioning effectively, allowing the timely evacuation of residents.”
The worsening flood situation overnight prompted the Punjab administration to call in the Pakistan Army in eight districts — Lahore, Okara, Faisalabad, Sialkot, Narowal, Kasur, Sargodha and Hafizabad — of Punjab province to assist civil authorities in rescue and relief operations, officials said earlier.
Earlier on Sunday, India communicated flood warnings to Pakistan through diplomatic channels on “humanitarian grounds.”
Punjab – literally the land of five rivers – is drained by Sutlej, Ravi, Chenab, jhelum and Beas, all into peak monsoon flows, and all flowing into Pakistan from India.
Due to flooding in the Chenab, more than one million people have been evacuated and relocated to safe locations over eight days, as per the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA).
In the Ravi basin, almost 80 villages were submerged and around 11,000 people have been evacuated and relocated to safe locations.
A total of 361 villages have been submerged by the overflowing Sutlej river and nearly 1,27,000 people have been evacuated and relocated to safe locations in the same duration. Meanwhile, Pakistan army chief Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir on Friday said Sikh religious sites, including Darbar Sahib Kartarpur, hit by the massive floods would be restored to their original shape. (PTI)
