KARACHI/ISLAMABAD: Pakistan's southern Sindh province is bracing for a high flood in the Indus river as the flow of water in eastern rivers has started returning to "normal," authorities said on Friday, following widespread destruction in the eastern Punjab province.
Punjab, home to more than half of the country'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, killing 79 people and submerging nearly two million acres of farmland since.
The inflow of water was recorded at 506,433 cusecs at Guddu Barrage on the Indus, 450,150 cusecs at Sukkur Barrage and 259,284 cusecs at Kotri Barrage, according to the Sindh Information Department. The Indus basin is being fed by Punjab's three eastern rivers, which were swollen by heavy rains and India's release of excess water since late August.
Sindh provincial authorities were busy evacuating of people and livestock from riverine areas in the province, following a Flood Forecasting Division's warning of a "very high" flood level in the Indus in the next 24 hours, as the Punjab Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) said the flow of water at Panjnad headworks at confluence of Sutlej and Chenab was 679,000 cusecs.
