MUZAFFARGARH: People from more than three dozen villages will be evacuated in the next two days while 17 relief camps have been set up along the Chenab areas.

District Coordination Officer Hafiz Shoukat Ali said at a press conference on Monday that the Punjab Disaster Management Authority had issued flood warning and his teams were making announcements in mosques to inform the people about the flood situation.

“After two years the Muzaffargarh district will face 310,000 cusec flow and its urban and rural areas will be affected by water,” he said.

On Thursday, he said, Muzaffargarh would face more than 300,000 cusec flow and high flood warning had been issued. The irrigation department could not complete construction work on Chandar Bhan spur, Doaba, Shehr Sultan and Rangpur areas.

The DCO said the officials of livestock, health, revenue, Rescue 1122 and irrigation departments had been put on high alert under a flood contingency plan.

He said keeping in view the information about expected floods, vigilance camps had been established at 17 points along the river.

“The relevant staff with sufficient equipment and search lights is available at camps.”

Villagers claimed that the scale of destruction didn’t seem less than that of flood in 2014. They alleged that gates of Mohammadwala and Sher Shah head bridges had been closed and were not opened. The DCO said livestock officials had sufficient stock of vaccination for animals while he had cancelled leaves of all officials.

Published in Dawn, August 9th, 2016