The high-level flood in the Sutlej River after India released water into it, over 162,000 people fled their areas in Bahawalpur while standing crops on over 57,000 acres of land have been devastated, Rescue 1122 sources said on Thursday. They said that standing crops including the maze, cotton, fodder and others have been inundated after flood water entered rural areas near the Sutlej River belt, causing farmers losses worth billions of rupees.
Referring to the preliminary estimate and survey conducted by the officials of the Punjab Emergency Service Department, Rescue 1122 Bahawalpur, over 3,500 houses were badly damaged by flood water. “The flood water wreaked havoc in 79 mauza jaat of Bahawalpur, causing complete devastation in three mauza jaat and partial damages in 69 mauza jaat,” they added. They said that the District Emergency Officer, Dr Baqir Hussain remained present at flood relief camps set up by the Rescue 1122 and the district management.
They said that the rescue staff, boats and ambulances also rescued hundreds of people from flooded areas to safer places. The rescued people included 187 men, 144 women, 219 children and 51 newborn babies,” they said, adding that 205 cattle were also evacuated to safer places. Sutlej is still in medium flood at Bhokan Pattan with over 100,000 people affected by flood so far in Bahawalnagar district. Floodwater has breached several dykes and submerged dozens of settlements, as over 100 of these still disconnected from the country with water covering the entire area.
Rescue 1122 teams with the assistance of locals are busy in relief activities and have shifted 11,940 stranded people to safety while the administration is providing facilities to the affected population at 30 camps. On the other hand, the people forced to leave their homes for safer locations have been facing great hardships including shortage of food while they are also not being supplied with anything to feed their cattle.
