BAHAWALPUR: The Sutlej floodwater is wreaking havoc on over 250 villages of three districts of Vehari, Lodhran and Bahawalpur, rendering over 600,000 people homeless so far.

Though the water is advancing towards Panjnad Headworks but its speed has been registered as moderate on Friday night due to its spread in the open areas and flooding of several more villages.

Dawn learnt from irrigation department’s experts that as the quantity of floodwater at Islam Headworks in Bahawalpur district and railway’s Empress Bridge near Bahawalpur city has been gauged as over 100,000 cusecs and 130,000 cusecs, respectively on Friday night. The peak of floodwater joined by rivers of Ravi and Chenab advancing in a slow speed ahead of Panjnad delayed the passage of their floodwaters’ peak through the headworks for a day.

According to the irrigation officials based at Panjnad, it is expected that floodwater peak of about 500,000 cusecs of these three rivers would start passing beneath the headworks by Saturday night.

The irrigation department’s officials, on the condition of anonymity, expressed satisfaction over the slow speed of floodwater, saying that this would easily pass through Panjnad without causing any damage to the structure of the headworks and that there would be no need to breach the right marginal bund (RMB) of Panjnad headworks (on Muzaffargarh district side).

They estimated that about 500,000 cusecs of floodwater would start passing through Panjnad Headworks at night on Saturday and would continue to pass easily till Sunday noon.

Published in Dawn, September 6th, 2025