LAHORE: Sixty people lost their lives, 458 schools, 18 hospitals, 912,423 acre land and 36,000 houses were damaged in Dera Ghazi Khan and Rajanpur districts in the recent flood.

According to an initial report of the district Rajanpur, a copy available with Dawn, 12 people lost their lives while 3,192 people were injured during the flood while 425 schools, 16 hospitals, one college, 318,423 acre crops and 28,646 houses were damaged.

The government established 27 relief camps, 48 medical and 55 veterinary camps while 564 health teams were also formed to provide health facilities to the people. The district administration distributed 16,685 tents, 48,122 ration bags, 1,430 mats, 6,866 bottles of drinking water, 2,000 mosquito nets and 5,583 cauldrons among the flood affectees.

In the Dera Ghazi Khan district, especially in its Taunsa tehsil, 252 roads, 354,000 acre land, 200,000 acre crops, 350 villages and 33 school buildings were damaged. As a part of relief activities, 25 relief camps and 17 tents colonies were established. The administration also distributed 40,000 ration bags, and 2,500 cauldrons among the flood victims of tehsils of DG Khan and Taunsa.

The residents of Mangrotha in the tehsil Taunsa blocked the Indus Highway in protest against unavailability of ration on Saturday evening. The protesters stopped trucks carrying food items to distribute in the Sokar area by parking tractor-trolleys on the Indus Highway. They complained that the government and NGOs were not visiting their camps and areas to provide them with any food while ration was being distributed among the favourites. The road was blocked for four to five hours.

Fazal Lund from Shadan Lund told Dawn that the flood was caused by poor redesigning of the drains, including Kora, Vehowa, Mithawan, Kahwan, Sanghar, Soori Lund, Matti Mahoi and Rekani. He said the bad planning had caused floods from Vehowa to Shah Saddar Deen and buried hundreds of houses and also resulted in damaging the land.

Fazal demanded the government stop taking water bills, agriculture loans and electricity bills of tube wells from the flood-hit farmers and give them subsidized fertilisers, seed and diesel. He suggested to the government to conduct a survey and provide monetary help to the people to build their houses on their own.

Published in Dawn, September 5th, 2022