CHINIOT: The residents of the flood-hit areas in the district have started returning to their native places, where the floodwaters have receded, leaving behind a trail of destruction, badly needing cooked food and fodder for their livestock.

Although the exceptionally high surge of 855,000 cusecs has passed from the district to downstream areas of Jhang, Muzaffargarh and Multan and the river Chenab has returned to its normal flow of 100,000 cusecs, the miseries of the people displaced by floodwaters continue.

As per official estimates, in the district, approximately 30,000 to 40,000 persons were displaced due to the calamity, who have now started returning to their homes devastated by floodwaters.

Locals say that the floodwaters not only destroyed their houses and standing crops, but also damaged their wheat stocks stored in their houses for personal consumption during the whole year. Another major issue they are facing is submersion of the green fodder, that is necessary to feed their livestock, they add.

They badly need cooked food and fodder for livestock

They lament that their stocks of firewood, which they had stored to use for cooking food etc, have also been swept away by the floodwaters.

In the absence of edibles in the area, the flood-hit families are badly in need of cooked food and green fodder for their cattle.

Though the administration is making efforts to provide the flood-hit people with cooked food and dry fodder (wanda) for their livestock at their doorsteps or in the relief camps set up in the affected areas, not everyone was getting these items.

The sources say that many professional beggars and others, who were not hit by the flood, have also joined the deserving persons, depriving them of their share of the relief items being provided by the government and private welfare organisations.

At a relief camp established in the Government Islamia College, Chiniot, one finds no affected families despite all arrangements made by the administration for their accommodation. However, at the time of distribution of meals, dozens of people gather there to get food hampers, everybody claiming to be flood-hit.

The administration was facing difficulties in providing food and other relief items to the people residing in inaccessible areas where the floodwater has destroyed the road infrastructure.

Chiniot Deputy Commissioner Safiullah Gondal says that teams have been constituted comprising officials of revenue, livestock, agriculture, health and other departments to reach all the affected villages, using boats and off-road vehicles like tractor-trolleyes to provide the residents with basic necessities, including food.

However, officials say that in the areas with low water the boats get stuck in the mud beneath the floodwater and the volunteers have to push them to reach the deserving families to supply food.

“I visited a number of villages, including Langer Makhdoom and others located downstream, where our boat got stuck in the mud and its engine stopped working. Despite that we reached the affected villages and provided cooked food to the residents,” says Wajid Ali, additional director of the livestock department.

He claims his department distributed thousands of bags of dry fodder to the affected farmers in the last 48 hours.

However, he says, it takes time to online verify whether a potential recipient of relief items like food and fodder is actually flood-hit. He says the revenue department’s record is also being used to identify the residents of rural areas.

Meanwhile, the deputy commissioner has ordered that schools in the district will remain closed for two more days in the aftermath of the flood.

Published in Dawn, September 2nd, 2025