High-level flood persists in Sutlej River as water enters Vehari

LODHRAN: High-level flood persists in Sutlej River at Sulemanki Headworks as it continues to wreak havoc along the river belt in Lodhran district, Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) said on Thursday.

According to reports, the floodwater in the Sutlej has entered Vehari whereas inflow and outflow of water at Islam Headworks was about 94,000 cusecs.

On August 21, it was reported that Sutlej had witnessed a deluge after India released more water into the river.

An earlier report issued by the Flood Forecast Division suggested that there was a high-level flood at Ganda Singh Wala as well having inflow and outflow of water of about 174,062 cusecs.

Thursday’s report issued by the provincial irrigation department stated that the inflow and outflow of water at Sulemanki Headworks was 136,632 cusecs, previously it was 146,271 cusecs.

Furthermore, the inflow and outflow of water at the Ganda Singh Wala is now at 115,046 cusecs. Dozens of villages and settlements had submerged under water whereas thousands of acres of crops had been destroyed.

Rescue efforts are underway by the local administration to provide relief to people. A mobile hospital has been set-up in the flood-affected areas, said a spokesperson of the health department adding that about 52 flood relief centres had been established. Teams from Rescue 1122 of Rahim Yar Khan had also reached Lodhran to help the flood victims.

Meanwhile, the education department said that about 24 schools near the river belt were closed in the areas surrounding Sutlej.

Earlier, Bahawalpur Commissioner Ehtesham Anwar said the divisional management was engaged round the clock to evacuate people to safer areas from the areas near the banks of Sutlej River.

“There is medium to high flood in Sutlej River and we have been making efforts to evacuate people to safe areas from the villages near the banks of Sutlej passing through Bahawalnagar and Bahawalpur districts and other areas,” he said on Sunday.

He said the government had also been providing facilities to people to evacuate their cattle to safer areas in view of the flood situation.

Meanwhile, official sources said that rescue and relief camps had been set up in areas near the banks of Sutlej River so that emergency aid could be extended to people if they were affected by a flood-like situation.