LAHORE (Dunya News) – Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif has said that the province is facing “the biggest evacuation and rescue operation in our history” as heavy floods continue to affect large parts of the province.
More than 600,000 people and around 450,000 animals have so far been evacuated from submerged areas.
The chief minister visited the Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) headquarters in Lahore, where she was briefed by officials on the evolving flood situation. Commissioners and deputy commissioners across Punjab also joined the session via video link. CM Maryam was assured that medical assistance, food and temporary shelters were being provided to flood victims across affected districts.
Speaking after the briefing, she said that Punjab is facing a crisis not seen in decades, worsened by continuous monsoon rainfall and water flows entering Pakistan after spillways were opened across the border in India. “Our rivers are overflowing,” she said, adding that a five-tier response plan had been activated with evacuation as the top priority.
Evacuation drive
Maryam said timely evacuations had prevented an even greater tragedy. “Containing this level of flooding with all resources was not humanly possible, but our officials responded promptly,” she said. Over 600,000 people have already been moved to safe zones while livestock has been relocated on barges and through veterinary camps.
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Districts currently under severe threat include Jhang, Muzaffargarh, Multan and Okara. Authorities have been instructed to ensure their preparedness is “airtight” and to continue moving people and animals away from floodplains.
Relief measures
The Punjab CM directed officials to set up tent villages, use school buildings as shelters, and ensure mobile bathrooms and segregated facilities for families. “Our people should not have to call us in distress – our field formations must know the ground reality of every street and every village,” she said.
Mobile clinics and “Clinics on Wheels” have been dispatched to provide medicines, vaccines and antidotes in flood zones. Relief operations are also distributing both cooked meals and dry rations to affected families, along with fodder and water for animals.
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So far, 511 relief camps and 351 medical camps have been set up across the province, with 321 veterinary centres established for cattle treatment. PDMA officials reported that at least 30 people have died due to drowning, while lightning strikes in Lahore caused two additional fatalities.
Rescue and operations
Rescue 1122 said it has evacuated 92,844 people from riverside settlements, including over 20,000 from Bahawalpur and thousands more from Kasur, Okara, Pakpattan and other districts. More than 808 boats and 1,800 trained scouts are operating across Punjab.
Punjab Police have deployed 15,000 personnel, who have so far rescued more than 38,000 men, 27,000 women and 25,000 children. They also moved over 82,000 cattle to safer ground.
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Meanwhile, PDMA has warned that a powerful flood wave of up to 700,000 cusecs could reach Multan in the coming hours, where controlled breaches may be needed to save the city. Flood levels remain high in the Sutlej, Ravi and Chenab rivers, with hundreds of villages already submerged.
At Shahdara in Lahore, water flow in the Ravi has reduced to 138,000 cusecs, down from over 190,000 cusecs recorded a day earlier. But downstream districts such as Okara, Sahiwal and Toba Tek Singh remain under alert for the next 48 hours.