ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s eastern Punjab province is seeing a gradual return to normalcy after heavy floods this month, even as more monsoon rains are forecast in several districts until Sept. 19, the Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) said on Wednesday.
Heavy rains and excess water released from Indian dams caused Punjab’s rivers to swell late last month, inundating more than 4,700 villages in the country’s agricultural heartland, destroying crops and homes and forcing millions to flee.
Since the onset of the monsoon season on June 26, Punjab has reported 296 deaths out of a nationwide toll of 998, according to the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA). Other casualties include 504 deaths in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, 80 in Sindh, 41 in Gilgit-Baltistan, 38 in Azad Kashmir, 30 in Balochistan and nine in Islamabad.
“The flow of water in Punjab’s rivers is returning to normal,” the PDMA said in a statement. “The Indus, Jhelum and Ravi rivers are at normal levels. The flow of water in the Chenab at Marala, Khanki, Qadirabad and Trimmu has normalized, while there is a medium-level flood in the Sutlej at Ganda Singh Wala and a low-level flood at Sulemanki and Islam headworks.”
The authority said Panjnad currently carries 194,000 cusecs of water with a low-level flood and that hill torrents in Dera Ghazi Khan have normalized.
A flood discharge report from the Flood Forecasting Division at 6 a.m. Wednesday showed most key river sites, including Tarbela, Kalabagh, Chashma and Taunsa on the Indus, as well as Mangla and Rasul on the Jhelum and all major Chenab stations, at normal levels.
Guddu and Sukkur barrages on the Indus in the southern Sindh province were at high flood while Kotri was at low flood.
The PDMA warned the monsoon’s 11th spell would continue until Sept. 19, with rain expected in Rawalpindi, Murree, Galiyat, Attock, Chakwal, Jhelum, Gujranwala, Lahore, Gujrat and Sialkot, and chances of showers in Narowal, Hafizabad, Mandi Bahauddin, Okara, Sahiwal, Kasur, Jhang, Sargodha and Mianwali.
Flash floods could occur in streams around Rawalpindi, Murree and Galiyat on Sept. 18 and 19.
The provincial administration remains on alert on the instructions of Punjab’s chief minister, the PDMA said.