GUJRAT: Residents of at least six to seven villages in the city outskirts have made breaches to drain out the rainwater accumulated in their fields.

Since Gujrat has witnessed an unprecedented rainfall in the current season making the city a worst example of urban flooding in the central Punjab, the citizens are still receiving the aftershocks of the rains, said a senior official of the administration.

He said the agricultural land on at least 2,400 acres in the villages like Loraan, Nathowal, Jhans, Qadir Colony, Malhu Khokhar, Madina Syedan and others have been inundated by the rainwater putting the freshly-sown crops by the farmers at stake who had created breaches by cutting the asphalt roads and pathways to steer the water towards the city.

However, residents of Madina Syedan village said they had become the victims of these breaches as most of the water of upper villages was now affecting the agricultural and residential areas of their village where all the graveyards were also filled with the rainwater.

They said they could not perform the burial of at least two deceased persons whose bodies had been sent to cold storage due to the current situation in the village.

The Madina village is located adjacent to Aziz Bhatti Shaheed Teaching Hospital (ABSTH) of Gujrat whereas the water was also affecting the Jamalpur, Boley, Bhimbher road, Mehmda, Saen Kanwanwala shrine, mission compound and Katchary Chowk etc.

An official of the District Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) said Gujrat required a complete revamp of the sewerage and drainage system which might take years of consistently working on it.

Gujrat Deputy Commissioner Safdar Virk said he had inspected the affected villages particularly the Madina Syedan whereas the breaches were being plugged.

He said the administration had been using all the available resources to get rid of the flooding situation in villages as well as in parts of city.

Published in Dawn, August 29th, 2024