PEshawar/Layyah - Flash floods triggered by cloudburst have inundated several areas across the country, from the Chitral Valley in the north to parts of southern Punjab and the mountainous areas of Balochistan in the south.
Chitral was worst affected where Glacial lake outburst, heavy rains and flash floods hit different parts of the valley, causing extensive damage to houses, mosques, bridges, roads, irrigation and water channels.
The floods also claimed two lives and emergency was declared in the area as floods washed away the main bridge linking Chitral to Mastuj sub-division and severing road links from the city to at least 10 union councils. Water level in River Chitral at different locations was rising with continuous rainfall.
The available machineries and manpower were deployed for temporary opening of suspended traffic to restore communication with the cut-off areas. The quantum of work required heavy machinery at the disposal of the district administration which was in dire need of technical expertise from National Highway Authority to augment the efforts and resources of Works & Services Department (C&W and PHE).
C&W Department Chitral has no approved AOM&R contract agreement for CFY 2015-16, therefore, the response to the emergency will be initiated with available machinery and staff.
Irrigation Department has been tasked to immediately start channelisation and clearance of debris from Drosh Gol, Kalkatak Gol and Chukidam.
Chief Municipal Officer has been tasked for proper arrangements for drinking water supply from Golen Gol water supply line and start work on Anghar Ghon WSU on emergent basis.
On behalf of the KP provincial government, Secretary Relief and Rehabilitation Authority and Director General PDMA had directed Deputy Commissioner Chitral to declare emergency in Chitral.
PDMA Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has already released relief funds to provide support to the affected people and food/non-food items on immediate basis. The district administration is providing medical relief/tents/food and non-food items to the flood affected population.
Commandant Chitral Scouts Colonel Naeem Iqbal said that the army and Scouts have been alerted and that relief and rescue operations were underway for the flood-affected people in Kailash valley.
Meanwhile, several parts of southern Punjab were also at the mercy of rapidly moving flood waves. According to detailss, at least 100 villages and settlements have been inundated around Layyah, which faced a medium-level flood on the banks of River Indus. Similarly, dozens of villages have been submerged in Kot Addu.
Similarly at Sukkur barrage, the influx of water was 269,000 and discharge was 214,000 cusecs at Guddu Barrage
Sindh irrigation department has reported medium level flood at Guddu Barrage. Flood control room has been established at Guddu and Sukkur Barrages to monitor the situation.
Meanwhile Frontier Corps Balochistan has started rescue and relief activities in the flood-affected areas of Mir Ali Khel in Zhob.
It rescued 12 people including women and children, stranded in flood tide. Nine vehicles were also rescued.