PESHAWAR, June 22: Army troops have been ordered to stand by as floodwater inundated several villages and farmland along the banks of Kabul and Swat rivers in different areas of Peshawar, Nowshera and Charsadda districts on Wednesday.

“The Peshawar district administration has formally requested the military authorities to send troops to the areas to rescue stranded people,” said Maj Sarfaraz of the Inter-Services Public Relations.

Water level is reaching an alarming level at the Warsak Dam where maximum discharge was registered at 97,300 cusecs at 5pm on Wednesday, according to an official of the control room at the reservoir.

He said that the Kabul river still had medium level flow because water discharge from the dam had not reached 100,000 cusecs. The water level might increase during the night, he cautioned.

Talking to Dawn, the ISPR official said that army teams had rushed to Nelaway and Khanpur villages in Peshawar district to assess the flood situation.

He said that preliminary reports suggested that flood water had affected 150 houses in the two villages.

NWFP Flood Relief Commission member Ghulam Jilani Khan said that the commission had provided 64 boats to the 11th Corps to help rescue the people of the affected areas. He, however, said that the commission had not received any report about loss of lives and property in the three districts that had been declared flood prone.

Unconfirmed reports said that flood waters had washed away a bridge near Naguman in Charsadda district, he added.

The UN inter-agency coordination committee was being re- activated to take part in relief efforts, said Dr Quaid Saeed, coordinator of the UN agencies.

Officials in the NWFP irrigation department said that flood situation in the River Kabul and the tributaries was worsening and flood water had inundated several localities in Charsadda, Peshawar and Nowshera districts.

Chief Engineer Wazir Khan said that the river flowed at least 90,580 cusecs of water at Warsak at about 10am on Wednesday but it came down to 83,750 cusecs at 12pm.

The irrigation department was monitoring the water level round the clock and had reactivated its 92 gauges out of total 124, installed at various points across the province to measure the water level, he added.

Police officials in Charsadda district said that flood water had entered the villages of Zangalkhel, Adezai, Shabera Zangel Korona and Haji Zai, a police check-post and an Afghan refugee camp in the Adezai area near Charsadda, inhabitants of which had started leaving the camp.

The DCO Nowshera denied reports of water entering the villages but agreed that the water flow was at a dangerously high level.