ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s eastern Punjab province is seeing a gradual return to normalcy after heavy floods this month, even as more monsoon rains are forecast in several districts until Sept. 19, the Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) said on Wednesday.
Heavy rains and excess water released from Indian dams caused Punjab’s rivers to swell late last month, inundating more than 4,700 villages in the country’s agricultural heartland, destroying crops and homes and forcing millions to flee.
Since the onset of the monsoon season on June 26, Punjab has reported 296 deaths out of a nationwide toll of 998, according to the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA). Other casualties include 504 deaths in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, 80 in Sindh, 41 in Gilgit-Baltistan, 38 in Azad Kashmir, 30 in Balochistan and nine in Islamabad.
“The flow of water in Punjab’s rivers is returning to normal,” the PDMA said in a statement. “The Indus, Jhelum and Ravi rivers are at normal levels. The flow of water in the Chenab at Marala, Khanki, Qadirabad and Trimmu has normalized, while there is a medium-level flood in the Sutlej at Ganda Singh Wala and a low-level flood at Sulemanki and Islam headworks.”
