Heavy rains damage Nullah Bana embankment

Villages, fields surrounding the embankment flooded with water

JHELUM: Despite millions being spent on its construction, a protective embankment built on the Nullah Bana near Bhimber village in Jhelum burst after the first monsoon rains in the area. As a result, nearby fields and villages were inundated with water.

Officials, however, claimed that the embankment remained safe and that flood waters came from another direction.

Locals said that the water entered houses in Bhimber New Colony, Chotala and Mimyan village. Water also entered the fields and destroyed standing crops over a vast area.

In the absence of rescue services, people evacuated the villages and rescued the stranded on self-help basis. The flood water also damaged the Jhelum-Pind Dadanjan road as well.

Locals said that the embankment had been built to protect the villages from devastating hill torrents as water cascades down the hills during monsoon at high speed. The embankment had been built after suffering from many delays and cost over Rs70 million.

The Punjab Chief Secretary Zahid Saeed takes notice of the embankment’s failure and directed Jhelum Deputy Commissioner Iqbal Hussain Khan and the Irrigation Department secretary to present a report on the damage.

Islam Ghauri of the Irrigation Department, meanwhile, told The Express Tribune that they had built the embankment to protect the local community from hill torrents and floods in the storm drain.

He added that the department had visited the embankment to analyse the situation on the ground and that they had taken measures to protect the people and to ensure the flow of water. He claimed that the Protection for Bhimber Village embankment survived.

Ghauri further said that water first headed upstream towards Mimyan before course correcting towards Bhimber.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 16^th, 2017.