PESHAWAR, June 26: The flood situation worsened in the North-West Frontier Province with a further rise in the levels of Kabul and Swat rivers caused by more than usual melting of snow in the Hindukush range.

The districts of Swat and Chitral have been hit hard by flash floods. Several valleys in Chitral have been flooded and three bridges have been washed away. A large bridge on the Chitral- Mastooj road is also under threat as the water level continues to rise. Chitral’s district coordination officer, Ghafoor Baig, told Dawn: “We have no report of any casualty so far, but there has been widespread damage. Many houses along the river bank have collapsed due to soil erosion”.

Standing crops and water mills in the Kalash valley and other areas of the district have been destroyed.

The NWFP Flood Relief Commission in a bulletin issued on Sunday asked people in six areas of Nowshera district and inmates of a refugee camp to be ready for evacuation.

People living in low-lying areas of Peshawar, Charsadda and Swat are said to be in a state of panic, looking at the menacing rise in the levels of Kabul and Swat rivers and their tributaries.

Swat district Nazim Mian Asfandyar Amirzeb told Dawn that several areas had been inundated and crops and orchards had been destroyed.

The river Kabul, which was in high flood at Nowshera with a discharge of 139,800 cusecs at 4.30 pm has swallowed the boundary walls of many houses.

In Peshawar district, the villages of Wazir Qila Daudzai and Bela Neku Khan are almost under water and about 4,000 people have been evacuated from flooded villages in Charsadda district.

The flood relief commission’s bulletin said that the river had reached the Bela Pirpai dry port of Pakistan Railways. However, there was no immediate threat to the dry port.

People of Nowshera Kalan, Pir Sabbaq, Pirpai, Pashtoon Ghari villages and inmates of Azakhel refugee camp, which houses almost 20,000 Afghans, have been asked to be ready for evacuation.

The commission has set up three relief camps in Nowshera Kalan and Pabbi. Distribution of tents and other relief items were under way in different areas, the commission said.

A senior officer of the NWFP Flood Warning Centre said that the rising levels of Kabul and Swat rivers could cause large- scale damage in low-laying areas of the three districts.

He forecast that the continuing heat wave in the region could further increase the levels of various rivers.