JHANG: Thousands of families displaced by the recent flood in the river Jhelum have been forced to take shelter at their relatives’ abodes or open places as the district administration has failed to offer any assistance or relief to them.

A majority of the people living close to river banks on either side rely on dairy business for their subsistence. They are mostly small landowners who have cattle as their asset and source of income.

Although the recent flood had not inflicted any loss of life or property, it dealt a severe blow to poor folks by damaging the fodder crop. They had to move their cattle to safer places along with their families to feed them.

Most of these families are facing difficulty without shelter as the provincial government has not set up relief camps or extended financial assistance to them. The authorities, who did not issue a timely flood warning in the potentially dangerous areas, also failed to pay a visit to the flood-hit area, let alone offering any relief activity.

The district coordination officer of Jhang admits the higher authorities failed to foresee the threat of flood. Deflecting blame on the irrigation authorities at Mangla and Rasool Headwork, the DCO says they conveyed fudged figures which kept them in the dark.

He said 74 villages in 18 Hazari and 56 in Jhang tehsil had been completely or partially inundated due to recent surge in Jhelum. The water levels downstream Rasool Headwork appeared normal as not more than 65,000 cusec flowed at one point in time.

“This situation does not even fall in low-flood category but here in Jhang we experienced flood-like situation. There was no early warning by the irrigation department or Mangla Dam authorities,” he says.

Published in Dawn, May 24th, 2015

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