Mianwali declared calamity hit area

MIANWALI: Mianwali has been declared as a calamity hit area, as more than nine hundred thousand cusecs of water is expected to pass from Layyah and reach Taunsa Barrage on Sunday.

Flash floods inundated several low lying areas. Local residents are building new embankments at Taunsa Barrage to prevent water from spilling out of it.

One hundred and fifty army troops have reached Layyah to participate in relief work.

Flash floods have so far swept away 405 people in the area.

In the absence of adequate government support, people have hired private boats to reach safe places.

Meanwhile, Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif visited Layyah and promised to provide assistance to the affected people.

DG Khan:

More than four hundred houses collapsed in Taunsa displacing thousands of people after heavy flooding in the area.

Rajanpur, Tibbi Qaisrani and seventy three villages of Taunsa have been affected due to the flash floods.

Link bridges have been destroyed and hundreds of people are stranded.

More than 50,000 people have been shifted to safer locations.

The army is helping the civil administration in the rescue work. Relief camps have also been set up in government schools.

Updated from print edition (below)

After the rains…

In order to save the Jinnah Barrage and the Jinnah Hydropower Project, the local Mianwali administration blew up a dyke which led to the flooding of several localities in the district.

According to officials, the Jinnah Hydropower Project was inundated and 750,000 cusecs of water were recorded being discharged from the barrage on Saturday. The total capacity for the barrage is 900,000 cusecs of water and the barrage’s left guide dyke was completely destroyed. “We feared that the left marginal dyke would also break so we needed to take quick action,” said a Mianwali tehsil municipal administration (TMA) official. Following the incident there are growing concerns that Daud Khel, Pai khel, Thathi, Paki Shah Mardan and Gulan Khel could also be submerged.

A Punjab government spokesperson has said that in order to save the Jinnah barrage and several neighbouring villages, the right dyke of River Indus had been breached. He said that water in Kalabagh was increasing and this was why the Jinnah Barrage and nearby villages were in danger. “That is why we needed to break down the right-side dyke. Rescue teams are working round the clock in the area and we hope to have the situation under control soon,” he said.

Sargodha:

In the town of Miani, people broke a dyke that had been set up to protect the city, causing a flood in the village. In River Jhelum Kalian Pur, several armed residents reached a dyke and broke it. Locals said that if the dyke had not been broken, the water would have flooded several villages located nearby. After public announcements in mosques people have now begun relocating to higher ground in the district.

Bhakkar:

In the Bhakkar district floods created havoc, as two children were drowned and standing crops over thousands of acres of land were decimated. Several villages have been completely submerged and communication systems have also been disrupted. The flood victims are currently awaiting government assistance. Bhakkar has been badly affected due to floods and lowland areas such as Rehman Wali, Bhichri, Shamsher Wali, Ashiq Sial, Busti Balochan Wali, Khawaja Abad, Chowk mania wala, Sahi wala have been completely inundated. Locals said that no rescue teams had reached the site after a lapse of several hours. In Rehmanabad, rescue teams have provided medical aid to hundreds of affectees. Rescue in charge Naveed Iqbal said that 225 people had been relocated to safer sites and 60 people had already been provided with medical aid. In Busti Noor Wali around 200 people sat on trees branches awaiting rescue. “There was only one boat for rescue efforts in the area,” Naveed Iqbal said.

Rajanpur Klan:

Following the devastation caused by the floods in the district, the River Indus remains in high tide and an additional two villages have been affected over the past three days. According to officials, on the one hand the floods have been causing havoc and on the other hand the River Indus is also in high tide due to which Moza Dahran Wali has been totally submerged. Moza Gurkan and Thal Naser are also eroding and thousands of acres of standing crops and houses have been completely inundated. Residents of the area have been forced to evacuate and are selling their belongings on bicycles to earn a living.

Khushab:

MPA Malik Javed Awan has demanded that Punjab chief minister Shahbaz Sharif visit the flood-hit zones, adding that the provincial government should declare these areas as calamity-stricken. Awan was addressing the press after visiting Sundral, Dhak, Nadi and other areas. “The floods have affected paddy crop on thousands of acres and sugarcane crop has also been affected. People have lost livestock and their houses have collapsed. It is a complete disaster zone,” he said. .
He said around 70 per cent of the district had been affected and the chief minister should announce compensation for the people.

Flood of information:

Two most devastating floods in Pakistan’s history occurred in 1988 and 1992. The 1988-flood lasted from July 18 to August 8. It inundated 4,035 villages in Punjab affecting three million people, four million acres of land (1.5 million acres of harvest), 122,142 mud and 54,386 brick houses. About 234 people died in the flood and 29,865 cattle were lost. The 1992-flood affected 7,435 villages, displacing about half a million people.  It affected more than 5 million acres of land (3-million acres of harvest), 200,000 mud and about 100,000 brick houses. About 435 people died in the flood and 39,126 cattle were lost. About 7,220 people have so far died in floods from 1950 to 2006 and 93,356 villages have been affected causing an estimated Rs69.397 billion damage.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 1^st, 2010.