BAHAWALNAGAR: Due to the ongoing flood in the River Sutlej, thousands of families in Bahawalnagar’s 140km long river belt have been forced to live under the open sky and over 80 villages have been disconnected from other areas.

Dawn spoke to displaced people from Minchinabad and Chishtian, including Riaz, Ahmad, Aslam, Alam, Muneer, Ashraf, Nasir, Ismael and Muneeb. They said that from constructing dykes to evacuation, they were doing everything on a self-help basis.

In some flood-affected areas, people also complained of the slow response by Rescue 1122 and the lack of medicines in flood relief centres (FRC). Declaring the FRCs as mere photo shoot points, they alleged that they were mistreated by patwaris and other officials posted there.

Some Rescue 1122 officials told Dawn that since the flood relief operation started on Aug 7, they have not been provided with food even for a day.

District Emergency Officer Rao Sharafat said that the Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) did not provide food hampers to the visitors of the FRCs. He said that 23 teams were busy rescuing people and till now 9,265 people along with 1,656 cattle had been evacuated in Chishtian, Bahawalnagar and Minchinabad till now.

He said 16 FRCs had also been set up across the district to facilitate the people. Rescue 1122 completed almost 7,000 transport operations; however, in some places, the demand for additional transport could not be fulfilled immediately.

Mr Rao said that the PDMA neither provided fuel for boats and ambulances nor any logistic services. He said that over 80 mauzas (villages) had been cut off from the area and the efforts were ongoing to rescue people from these areas.

Bahawalnagar Deputy Commissioner Zulfiqar Ahmad said that despite the limited funds, the administration managed to evacuate not only thousands of people along with their property and livestock in the biggest flood in the 35-year history of Bahawalnagar. He said that up to 165,242 people had been evacuated from 156 villages/mauzas and in 26 FRCs, food and temporary residence were being provided to people.

The DC said that since there was no government-built dyke in Bahawalnagar, the people living around the river built small dykes on their own. The DC ordered the administration to immediately provide food to the Rescue officials. He said a letter had been written to the PDMA for the release of funds, but they had yet to respond. He said that people had been demanding compensation for their houses and crops damages and a report was being prepared.

PDMA PRO Mazhar said the PDMA was funding Bahawalnagar, Kasur, Okara, Pakpattan, Vehari, Lodhran and Bahawalpur.

A report of the PDMA issued on Aug 26 said that 222 boats, 3,006 life jackets and 20 ambulances had been provided to the seven flood-affected districts, including Bahawalnagar by the PDMA. Quoting PDMA’s report, Mr Mazhar said that 36,519 people and 153,584 cattle had been treated at 95 medical campuses established in seven districts.

He said 210,912 people and 24,753 cattle had also been relocated and cooked food had been served to 69,169 people, while 89,211 people had been rescued in these districts using PDMA funds, he added.

Published in Dawn, August 29th, 2023