Punjab is reeling from the worst flood in its history with dozens of cities submerged in the rising water as raging Ravi, Chenab and Sutlej rivers uprooted near a million people, caused significant damage to infrastructure and devastated millions of acres of agricultural land.

The provincial government is on its toes due to the catastrophic flood as the three trans-border rivers have swollen to exceptionally high levels due to a combination of heavy rains and the excess water India is releasing from dams, which then flows across the border into Pakistan. The flooding has forced the government to rush in the Army for assistance in eight districts: Sialkot, Narowal, Hafizabad, Sargodha, Lahore, Kasur, Okara and Faisalabad.

The worst flood has so far submerged Sialkot, Narowal, Gujranwala, Jhang, Chiniot, Sambrial, Daska, Phalia and Kasur. The next cities in line of the flood were Sheikhupura, Shahdara, Hafizabad, Okara and Sahiwal. The scenes were of utter chaos as villages after village is surrounded by the floodwater with nearly a million people forced out of their homes, rice, cotton and other crops on thousands of acres of land were washed away along with thousands of cattleheads. The rising water in Ravi River has broken a 38-year-old record, threatening Shahdara city near Lahore.

Floodwater from Ravi River has entered localities in Sarai Mughal, surrounding the population, destroying agriculture land, prompting the authorities to set up six flood relief camps along the riverbank. The raging Ravi also wreaked havoc in Manga Mandi, Nasla Basantar, Jester and Narowal and is threatening Head Balloki. A big flood wave of nearly 100,000 cusecs in Ravi passed through Renala Khurd with damage yet to be ascertained.

Assistant Commissioner Tehsil Ravi said that though the situation was under control but a large wave of floodwater of approximately 150,000 cusecs is passing through Shahdara but the water level is expected to rises in the next 12 hours when 200,000 cusecs of water is expected to pass from the area. Pressure is worsening on Qadirabad Headworks in River Chenab threatening the embankment.

The water level is feared to rise to million cusecs which will head to Jhang and Head Trimu in the next 48 hours. On Wednesday, the authorities blew up an embankment next to a monsoon-engorged dam as flooding submerged Kartarpur Sikh shrine. The floodwater from India has triggered flood alerts throughout Punjab, home to nearly half of Pakistan's 255 million people. Around 210,000 people had moved to another location on Wednesday, according to the disaster authorities.

At the Qadirabad dam on the Chenab River, authorities carried out a controlled explosion of an embankment on Wednesday as the water levels rose. "To save the structure, we have breached the right marginal embankment so that the flow of the water reduces," said Mazhar Hussain, a spokesperson for Punjab's disaster management agency. The Kartarpur shrine, which marks where the founder of the Sikh faith Guru Nanak is said to have died in 1539, was submerged by floodwater. Five boats were sent to the sprawling site to rescue around 100 stranded people.

Credit: Independent News Pakistan (INP)