By Our Correspondent
LAHORE – The Director General of the Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA), Irfan Ali Kathia, has announced that the 10th monsoon spell has ended, and Punjab faces no further threat of heavy rains.
He assured that the situation in rivers is easing, and a major relief package will soon be unveiled by the Chief Minister.
Speaking at a press conference in Lahore, Kathia said South Punjab had been hit hard after India released 253,000 cusecs of water into River Sutlej at Ganda Singh.
He noted that the water level in India’s Thein Dam has dropped by 11 feet, while flows in the Ravi River have declined significantly and are expected to normalize within two days.
With rains subsiding, no new flood surges are anticipated. Authorities believe that within four to five days, upper Punjab villages will begin returning to normal.
Updating on the flood’s scale, Kathia said over 32 villages remain inundated. The government had established 488 relief camps that sheltered about 80,000 people, while more than 2.1 million residents were moved to safer ground. Around 250,000 people received care at medical camps.
Despite massive rescue efforts, Punjab has so far lost 66 lives to the floods. Nearly 1.95 million acres of farmland have been destroyed, with South Punjab suffering the most damage in what Kathia described as one of the largest flood surges in the province’s history.
In Jalalpur Pirwala, nearly 2,700 people were evacuated with the help of 70 boats, while major rescue operations continued at Trimmu, Panjnad, and Guddu.
He termed it Punjab’s largest-ever rescue mission, jointly carried out by the Pakistan Army, Rescue services, and government departments.
In the past 24 hours, however, tragedy struck again when a young girl was killed after her house roof collapsed due to heavy rains — underscoring the lingering dangers even as floodwaters begin to recede.
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