HARIPUR, Aug 28: The Tarbela lake inundated around 700 mud-houses of Afghan refugees along its banks, forcing them to vacate the area, after the water-level rose sharply on Tuesday night.

The water-level started to rise in the evening, as a result of heavy rains on the mountains, and flooded the Afghan settlement along the Tarbela lake banks. No loss of life was reported.

Said Agha, an Afghan DP, told Dawn that neither the local administration nor the Wapda staff had warned them of the expected rise in the level of water. The flood-water washed away the belongings of several families.

Sources at the District Coordination Office, when contacted, said that since these Afghan settlers had encroached upon the Wapda land and had built their homes near the lake, they had been warned on several occasions to move, but they paid no heed to the warnings.

Asked about the water-level situation, a source said that soon after receiving the information about the rising water from the chief engineer Tarbela Dam Project, the district administration sent messages to all the concerned offices to inform the settlers to vacate the area.

He said that Wapda had also issued notices to the Afghan refugees in this regard. About any compensation to the affected people he said that the district government would take the matter up with the concerned authorities.