JHANG: The River Jhelum continues to play havoc in the areas on either banks, upstream Trimmu headworks, as more villages are facing the devastation caused by the unseasonal flood.

Irrigation department authorities and district administration are overlooking the pleas of the affected people who believe if barrage gates allow the smooth flow of floodwater downstream, it can alleviate their predicament.

Lawyer Muhammad Afzal Sial, three-time president of the Jhang bar and a resident of the affected area, told Dawn that he spoke to a provincial minister, an adviser to the chief minister and the deputy commissioner and informed them about the worsening situation in the affected area, seeking their immediate intervention to ease up the state of affairs. All of them promised to look into the problem but nothing was done.

Mr Sial accused the irrigation department and other departments of wreaking devastation by not responding to farmers’ calls. He said the authorities needed to remove silt from the river bed near the headworks as that area had accumulated huge silt over the years.

A combination of closures of gates of barrage and accumulation of silt in the river bed are the main two causes of the flooding. He appealed to the chief minister and other relevant authorities to take immediate remedial measures or there could be an even bigger destruction in case of medium or high flood in the area.

A recent wave of flood in the River Jhelum, caused by unseasonal torrential rains in the catchment areas, has damaged standing wheat and fodder crops in some 60 villages of tehsils Jhang and Athhara Hazari of the district.

Floodwater overflowing the river banks on either side has spread in an area up to approximately one kilometer along the bank and there is about one foot deep water on fields.

Affected villages include Kiran, Mazari, Doka, Chandia, Klera, Thatti Nusrat, Kot Khan, Kabli, Chela, Bhorana, Saghar Klasan, Kot Shakir, Machiwal, Ahmadabad, Aliana, Dosa and Kharal.

Published in Dawn, March 29th, 2020