Flood havoc: Incessant rains cause Fort Munro landslide

Punjab-Balochistan highway was blocked as a result

DERA GHAZI KHAN:

Heavy downpour in Sulaiman Range on Saturday caused a massive landslide in Fort Munro and Nilli Matti, suspending traffic on the Balochistan-Punjab Highway. Rains also caused flash floods in hill torrents, prompting the district administration to dispatch engineers’ teams to breach dykes at strategic points to lessen pressure on other sites.

The district administration has alerted Baloch Levies and the Border Military Police to stop traffic near Rakhi Gaaj and Sakhi Sarwar. A spokesman of the DCO said the National Highway Authority had been contacted to provide machinery to clear the highway.

District officials were preparing to breach several dykes as 100,000 cusecs flood was expected to pass through Dera Ghazi Khan. The deluge is expected to pass through Dera Ghazi Khan between 2am and 3am on Friday. In 2012, Dera Ghazi Khan had been inundated by a similar flash flood.

An emergency has been declared in Dera Ghazi Khan. Baloch Levies, the BMP and district police have been directed to monitor the situation.

In Muzaffargarh, the DCO said water level was falling in River Indus. He said inflow was 496,000 cusecs at Taunsa Barrage, which was a medium-level flood.

He was talking to newsmen while monitoring relief activities at Kot Addu. He said 29,255 people had been evacuated from vulnerable villages and moved to relief camps.

He said 860 people were being housed at three relief camps in Kot Addu.

Rahim Yar Khan DCO Imran Sikandar Baloch visited villages near Panjnad Headworks in Rasulpur and checked safety of Bakhtiari embankments. The DCO directed the Ahmadpur East assistant commissioner to remain alert and monitor flow at Panjnad Headworks.

Talking to newsmen, the DCO said the government had devised a comprehensive disaster management plan.

He urged citizens to cooperate with the district administration.

“Families living near the river should evacuate immediately,” he said.

The DCO said those living at relief camps should be vaccinated. He said Revenue Department officials were overseeing evacuation of villages near the river bank.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 2^nd, 2015.