Pakistani authorities have evacuated more than a million people from homes in Punjab province this week, officials said yesterday, as the worst flooding there in four decades caused havoc in hundreds of villages and submerged vital grains crops.
Torrential monsoon rain and neighbouring India’s release of excess water from its dams swelled three rivers that flow into the eastern province, forcing authorities to breach river banks in some places – causing flooding in more than 1,400 villages, Punjab’s disaster management authority said.
Residents of villages such as Qadirabad were walking through water up to their chests yesterday after the River Chenab overflowed, causing sudden flooding.
“We spent the whole night awake and frightened,” Nadeem Iqbal, 26, a labourer, told Reuters as he waded through the water with one of his children.
“Everyone was frightened. Kids cried. Women were worried. We were helpless,” he said.
Officials say flooding has been worsened in Punjab – home to half of Pakistan’s people and a major producer of wheat, rice and cotton – by the release of water into the three rivers, the Ravi, Sutlej and Chenab, from Indian dams that were full.
India, which routinely releases water from dams when they get too full, passed on three flood warnings to Pakistan this week, calling them a humanitarian measure.
Both countries are battling a heavy monsoon season that has unleashed flash floods. At least 60 people have died this month in India’s Kashmir, while Pakistan’s death toll since late June stands at 819.
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