KASUR: Around 100,000 people have been evacuated from flooded villages in Pakistan’s Punjab province, emergency services said. Several hundred villages and thousands of acres of cropland in central province were inundated when Sutlej River burst its banks.

Head of Punjab’s caretaker government Mohsin Naqvi said that monsoons had prompted authorities in India to release excess reservoir water into Sutlej River, causing flooding downstream on Pakistani side of border.

“Flood waters came couple of days ago and all our houses were submerged. We walked all way here on foot with great difficulty,” 29-year-old Kashif Mehmood, who fled with his wife and three children to relief camp, told AFP.

Monsoon brings South Asia 70-80 percent of its annual rainfall between June and September every year. It is vital for livelihoods of millions of farmers and food security in region of around two billion people but it also brings landslides and floods that lead to frequent evacuations.

“We have rescued 100,000 people and transferred them to safer places,” Farooq Ahmad, spokesman for Punjab emergency services told AFP.

More than 175 people have died in Pakistan in rain-related incidents since monsoon season began in late June, mainly due to electrocution and buildings collapsing, emergency services have reported.

Published in The Daily National Courier, August, 24 2023

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