150,000 survivors at risk again

Fresh flood warnings were issued in Rajanpur as officials ordered the emergency evacuation of the area.

Fresh flood warnings were issued in Rajanpur district on Monday as district officials ordered the emergency evacuation of areas previously untouched by the fury of the raging torrents.

The warnings put about  half a million people at risk, including 150,000 who had taken refuge from the surrounding areas and were being asked to evacuate on an emergency basis, The Express Tribune has learnt.

A 40-kilometre tract of land stretching from Jampur to Rajanpur tehsil is now under threat. “The second wave has hit us badly,” District Coordination Officer (DCO) Muhammad Usman told The Express Tribune. He said these are areas where people had gathered after escaping the earlier floods.

“We are trying to plug the breach but we have also warned the people to evacuate the area,” he added. He said the River Indus had overflowed its banks and washed away a 20-foot long bank of the Qadra Link Canal. He said the administration was working to strengthen the second embankment wall at Hazoori Wah.

According to him, breaches have been made on three other embankments to deflect som of the water pressure but there was another threat as well because the waters had also washed the bank of the Qadra Link Canal, which is five kilometres away from Fazilpur.

Over 150,000 people from the surrounding areas who had taken refuge in Fazilpur are being asked to evacuate yet again.

Rauf Dareshak, who lives in Fazilpur, said that floodwater was swiftly moving towards the city and he had nowhere to go. He said that he had managed some biscuits and grains and along with his family would take refuge on the rooftop of his house.

Dareshak also said that there was no relief camp in his  area and the flood survivors were living out in the open and begging to get by.

Syed Muhammad Hussain Bukhari, a former nazim of Fazilpur union council told The Express Tribune that Hazoori Wah, which the district administration has declared as safe, would not protect the area from floods. Bukhari urged the government to provide transport for the public evacuation. “Only local people are trying to fill the breach in the Qadra Link Canal,” claimed Bukhari, pointing to the district administration’s lethargic response to the flood threat.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 17^th, 2010.