Some 100,000 people have been evacuated in the province of Punjab in Pakistan after floods triggered, according to the Pakistani authorities, by India’s discharge of surplus monsoon water into a river watering the two countries.
Several hundred villages in Punjab (center-east) were submerged by the flood on Sunday of this river, the Sutlej, and thousands of hectares of agricultural land, in particular plantations, were destroyed.
“We have rescued 100,000 people and transferred them to safer places,” Farooq Ahmad, spokesman for the Punjab emergency services, told AFP on Wednesday.
After torrential monsoon rains that caused flooding, India poured nearly 85,000 m3 per second of excess water into its reservoirs into the Sutlej on Sunday, causing flooding downstream on the Pakistani side, according to Mohsin Naqvi , the head of government of Punjab.
India frequently dumps its surplus water into rivers flowing to Pakistan, which it normally warns in advance but which denounces a recurring problem.
Muhammad Aslam, a senior Pakistani weather service official, told AFP that the Sutlej River had not seen such a flood in 35 years.
Since July 9, 16 people have died in floods directly caused by India’s regular water discharges, according to Pakistani emergency service Rescue 1122.
The dykes that were supposed to protect homes did not resist the flood and hundreds of villages are no longer accessible by road.
Relief operations are continuing in flooded areas, where authorities have to use boats to shelter men, women, children and livestock.
“There is too much water here. The children are hungry and they have nothing to eat,” Sidhra Bibi, a villager who took refuge in a camp in Kasur, one of the seven villages, told AFP on Tuesday. districts at least affected or about to be.
“The flood water came two days ago and all our houses were submerged. We walked here with great difficulty,” said Kashif Mehmood, a laborer who came with his wife and three children to the village. a relief camp.
The Provincial Disaster Management Authority has warned that the floods could worsen further in the coming days as more monsoon rains are expected in this region.
At least 175 people have died in Pakistan in floods, building collapses, landslides and other incidents triggered by monsoon rains since late June.
Water levels after heavy monsoon rains in India were so high that they “far exceeded India’s storage capacity”, Ali Tauqeer Sheikh, a Pakistani climate expert, told AFP.
“There was no ill intent or malice on India’s part,” he said. “Because in Pakistan we were watching the Indian monsoon very carefully, expecting it and anticipating it, and therefore the Punjab and Pakistani authorities had enough time to evacuate the communities and prepare a contingency plan.”
Pakistan is still trying to recover from the devastating floods that affected almost a third of its territory in 2022, affecting more than 33 million people and killing more than 1,700.
The monsoon, which usually lasts from June to September, is essential for the irrigation of plantations and for replenishing the water resources of South Asia, to which it contributes 70 to 80% of its annual rainfall.
It is vital for agriculture and food security in this poor region, which alone has around two billion inhabitants. But it also brings its share of drama and destruction each year.
According to experts, global warming contributes to making rainfall more intense and more unpredictable.
Pakistan, home to a population of 250 million, says it is responsible for less than 1% of global greenhouse gas emissions. However, it is one of the countries most vulnerable to climate change.
23/08/2023 15:24:27 – Mattress (Pakistan) (AFP) – © 2023 AFP
