Floods wreak havoc in Balochistan, southern Punjab

QUETTA, LAHORE (INP): As many as 19 people were drowned in flash floods in Musa Khel in Balochistan and Dera Ghazi Khan in Punjab while the rescuers fished out nine dead bodies. Reportedly, a dam in Musa Khel, Balochistan swept away following the torrential rains on Monday. As a result, 12 people drowned in the floodwaters. The rescue officials took out four bodies while the search for 8 others was underway.
While confirming the news, Deputy Commissioner Yasir Iqbal Dashti said that hundreds of houses collapsed during the recent spell of heavy rains. According to official data, the death toll in Balochistan has reached 194. In Punjab, 7 people have swept away in the hill torrent from Koh-e-Suleman in Tuman Qaisarani in Dera Ghazi Khan. So far, five dead bodies have been fished out. The rescuers have saved one person while another is still missing. A woman died due to land sliding in the area. Dear Ghazi Khan has been cut off from the rest of the country due to hill torrents from the Suleman Range mountains.
In Balochistan, the nullahs and streams in Kohlu, Barkhan, Dera Bugti, Jhal Magsi and Jafarabad have overflown threatening flooding of the areas. River Nari and River Tili are facing medium flood. According to official data, the death toll in Balochistan has reached 194. Floods have wreaked havoc on villages in Balochistan and southern Punjab, leaving the flood-hit people trapped under the open sky, waiting for some aid from the government.
Dozens of villages were flooded in Lehri tehsil, Sibi district, Balochistan due to the inflow of 140,000 cusecs of water in Lehri River. Bakhtiar Abad Domki, Dargah Katbar Sharif, Tanya and Wazira are among the villages that were submerged. The road, connecting Dargah Katbar Sharif to other areas of Balochistan, has also fallen prey to the flood. Residents of Dargah Katbar Sharif and adjoining villages are trapped in flood under the open sky. Rescue teams have not been able to reach the flood-hit areas due to a lack of land connectivity. The villagers of Dargah Katbar Sharif, suffering from a lack of food including clean drinking water, are waiting for aid under the open sky. After submerging dozens of villages in Lehri tehsil, the flood is now moving towards Naseerabad.
Some of the villages of Lehri tehsil including Allah Wah Trihar, Murad Wah Rilo, Gulab Khan Rilo, Mian Khan Wazir and Machhi Thidi Brahmani have been completely submerged. The standing cotton crop over thousands of acres has been destroyed; hundreds of tube wells and cattle heads have been washed away in gushing floods. The land connection of Lehri tehsil with the rest of Balochistan has been cut off due to the washing away of roads in floods.
For two days, the flood victims have been lying under the open sky, without any help, hungry and thirsty. They say that the government should immediately move them to a safe place by helicopter and arrange food and water for them. It is to be noted here that at least 10 people have fallen prey to the gushing floods in the district during the last three days. In Southern Punjab, the flood has wreaked havoc on dozens of villages in Kot Chattha.
It has been learnt that dozens of villages in Chak No 1 were completely submerged, and hundreds of houses in Chah Lindwala, Basti Shahani and Basti Jadiani were destroyed. People are moving to safe places on a self-help basis. Apart from Rescue 1122, the officials of the tehsil administration are nowhere to be seen. No flood relief camp has been set up for the flood-hit people who are also facing food shortages.
In Nawabshah, intermittent heavy rain with strong winds continues in different areas of Nawabshah. Due to continuous rain, several feet water has accumulated on the main highways of the city. Besides, several feeders were tripped due to rain, and the power supply has been suspended in many areas. Moreover, many areas of Nawabshah were flooded due to heavy rain including Dor, Bandhi, Qazi Ahmed and Sakrand. In Hafizabad, the incompetence of the municipal committee came to the light after the dirty water from drains accumulated on the roads due to heavy rain in the district.
The rain also turned the roads across the city into a pond, forcing the girl students to reach their schools after passing through dirty water. The municipal committee staff is unable to ensure cleanliness at the educational institutions across the city.
Meanwhile, he National Highway (N-25), also known as the RCD Highway that connects Karachi to Quetta, continued to remain closed for the third straight day on Monday after suffering damage during rains and floods. Lasbela Deputy Commissioner (DC) Murad Kasi told reporters that a recently established alternate route near the Landa area of Uthal on the National Highway was washed away by floods on Friday, leaving long queues of stranded vehicles over the past three days, including those carrying commercial goods.
Kasi said that the water level in the Landa river had dropped, and thus, restoration work on the road would begin today, following which the road would be operational for traffic. He added that the National Highway Authority had been directed to expedite and complete the restoration operation soon. The DC also said that relief operations in Lasbela, which were suspended for two days, resumed on Monday.
Separately, locals said land connectivity was cut off from the flood-affected area of Lakhra and restoration work for it had begun. Meanwhile, a report from the Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) said that the death toll in the province since June 1 had reached 196, with 81 injured and 19,762 houses partially or completely damaged. CM holds survey meeting
Meanwhile, Balochistan Chief Minister Mir Abdul Quddus Bizenjo held a meeting to survey the relief operations and the damages in flood-affected areas. The PDMA director general and the secretaries of relevant departments briefed the meeting on relief activities. The meeting decided to form special teams comprising officers who would provide assistance to the administration of affected districts in surveying damages. The moot decided that the initiative’s objective was to complete survey work within the stipulated period. “The entire province is affected by the flood. We have to look at every district,” the chief minister said. He instructed the deputy commissioner to determine an accurate estimate of the losses.