Sutlej River water has dropped to low flood at Ganda Singh Wala in Kasur district on Thursday. The water flow in river has been 74,390 cusecs at Ganda Singh Wala and 77,022 cusecs at Islam Headworks, Provincial Disaster Management Authority has stated.Sutlej River has been in medium flood at Sulemanki Headworks 95,238 cusecs flow. Flooding in Sutlej has wreaked havoc in Bahawalnagar district and 86 settlements of the river belt have been affected in flood. Ferocious flow of the river water has swept away protective dykes and roads in the district. The land link with over 100 settlements has been disrupted and standing crops of thousands of acres have drowned while the water has flooded several houses.

Floodwater has developed craters at link roads connecting river belt with the main highway. Rescue teams have shifted 12,236 people stranded in flood water to safer places. The administration has set up 30 flood relief camps for affected people. The water level in river gradually going down at Mailsi Siphon. Flooding has destroyed small protective dykes along the river, while several areas including Muradpur, Ghouspur, Fatehpur have submerged in water. Rescue teams have been engaged in shifting stranded people to safer areas.

Flooding has wreaked havoc in the region as thousands of acres farmland has drowned and crops destroyed in Kasur, Bahawalnagar, Okara, Pakpattan, Sahiwal and Vehari districts.The area has become a mammoth lake with water everywhere to the limits of the visible landscape and several settlements have drowned. The monsoon rains had prompted authorities in India to release excess reservoir water into the Sutlej River, causing flooding downstream on the Pakistani side of the border.

Credit: Independent News Pakistan (INP)