CHITRAL: After a two-day break, flash floods were again reported from several villages of Chitral on Friday, which caused damage to life and property, but not at the scale unleashed by the devastating floods of last week.

Two streams passing through the adjoining villages of Mroi and Barenis along the Chitral-Booni road were in high floods till late on Friday night, and the floodwater had already started submerging the houses along the banks, forcing the villagers to flee to safer places.

Swelling waters of both the streams stopped the flow of Chitral River for more than two hours, creating a huge pool of water, forcing the local administration to issue an alert for the people of the low lying areas.

However, the huge pool of water broke inundating houses and hundreds of acres of land in the villages of Kuju, Jughoor, Gwari, Broze, Ayun and Khairabad.

The Kalash valley of Bumburate was also hit by floods on Friday for the third time during the last ten days, sweeping away the road through the valley, which was restored to vehicular traffic only a day before.

Muzhgole village in upper Chitral was also hit by flash floods for the second time, where 50 per cent of the area had already been washed away by flash floods last week, destroying over 70 houses. Floods also hit Warijun, Awi, Yarkhun and Oveer villages for the second time, but no damage to homes and fields was reported.

In upper Chitral, several villages, including Reshun, Booni, Gohkir, Sonoghur and Brep, are vulnerable to the phenomenon of glacial lakes outburst flood (GLOF). The Met department has already issued red alert about GLOF in these areas and has asked the residents to shift to safer places well in time as the glacial flood was rapid in speed and devastated larger areas than the flash floods.

Published in Dawn, August 1st, 2015

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