KARACHI: Pakistan’s flood authority on Thursday warned that the Indus River will reach “very high flood” levels at Guddu Barrage, a major dam in Sindh province that regulates flows to southern Pakistan, within 48 hours, as swollen rivers from Punjab move south and officials there reported conditions gradually improving.
Punjab, home to more than half of Pakistan’s 240 million people and its main farming belt, has been devastated since late August when record monsoon rains swelled the Ravi, Chenab and Sutlej rivers simultaneously in a historic first. Punjab officials say 79 people have died and nearly two million acres of farmland submerged in the province’s worst flooding in four decades.
According to the Punjab disaster authority, the Chenab River was still carrying heavy volumes on Thursday afternoon, with more than 150,000 cubic feet per second flowing through Trimmu, one of its major control points, and above 90,000 at Qadirabad further downstream.
The Sutlej River was also running high, pushing over 120,000 cubic feet per second through its headworks at Sulemanki and Islam, while the Ravi had stabilized at lower levels. Officials said the overall pattern showed that enormous volumes of water were continuing to drain southward from Punjab into the Indus.
