LAHORE: The authorities began making preparations on Saturday to meet any eventuality caused by spells of heavy to very heavy rain forecast by the Met office initially for the upper and later southern parts of the country from Sunday to Thursday.

With a discharge of 500,000 cusecs, the Indus was in high flood at Guddu Barrage. The flow is expected to rise to 550,000 cusecs by Sunday evening.

The Flood Forecasting Division (FFD) predicted flood in Sutlej river in Ganda Singhwala area of Kasur, bordering India, during the next 48 hours. The flow at this place is likely to increase rapidly because water is expected to be discharged by India into the rivers Sutlej and Beas.

The FFD reported a short-lived peak of 145,000 cusecs in Jhelum river upstream Mangla Dam.

The Federal Flood Commission said the Indus was in medium flood in the Chashma-Taunsa and Taunsa-Guddu reaches. Kabul river was in medium flood between Warsak and Nowshera, whereas Swat river (at Charsadda Road Bridge) and Chenab river (at Khanki Barrage) were in low flood.

It said that in Layyah district minor erosion had been witnessed in the bank of the Indus near Shahwala Groyne. Field workers of the Punjab irrigation department were busy in preventing further erosion.

Preparations begin to meet any eventuality caused by heavy to very heavy rain

The workers were also struggling to plug a breach in the bank of the Indus in Ganda Jhakkar Imam Shah, Dera Ghazi Khan, which occurred on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, the FFD reported rain in different parts of the country on Saturday. It said that Mithi received 82 millimetres of rain, Khanpur 54mm, Lahore 25mm, Multan 22mm, Layyah 21mm, Bahawalnagar 9mm, Bahawalpur 8mm, and Sialkot, Jhelum, Okara, Jhang and Malamjabba 4mm.

APP adds: The Met office forecast on Saturday scattered heavy rainfall in upper Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the Federally Administered Tribal Areas, upper Punjab, and parts of Sindh, Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan by Sunday evening.

According to the office, scattered rain is expected in Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Gujranwala, Lahore, Sargodha, Faisalabad, Sahiwal, Multan, Dera Ghazi Khan, Bahawalpur, Malakand, Hazara, Peshawar, Kohat, Bannu, Dera Ismail Khan, Mirpurkhas, Hyderabad, Karachi, Sukkur, Zhob, Sibi, Nasirabad, Kalat, Fata, Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan.

It warned that heavy rain might generate flash and urban flooding in vulnerable areas and, therefore, advised authorities concerned to take precautionary measures.

Highest maximum temperatures recorded were: 44 degrees Celsius in Dalbandin, 43 in Nokkundi, 41 in Sibi and 40 in Jacobabad and Sukkur.

Published in Dawn, July 26th, 2015

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