The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) issued a weather advisory on Wednesday warning that the area around Punjab’s Chenab River could be hit with a flood within a day’s span (April 1-April 2).
According to the press release issued by the NDMA, a strong westerly wave is likely to hit the upper catchments of the Chenab River due to which moderate to heavy rainfall can be expected in Chenab River’s catchment areas.
As a result of the rain, Chenab River at Marala is likely to rise and attain “medium to high flood level”.
As per the weather advisory, labelled “most immediate”, water levels in the Chenab River may jump to 140,000 to 210,000 cusecs during the period 12:00 Pakistan Standard Time (PST) on April 1, 2015 to 12:00 PST on April 2, 2015.
In wake of the looming flood possibility, NDMA has warned the government in its advisory to take all “necessary measures to avoid loss of life and damage to property”.
According to sources, due to the torrential rains around the Chenab River area, drains in many towns, including Sialkot, are rising to the point of overflowing.
Floods in Sindh and Punjab provinces in the last decade have caused immense damage to the infrastructure and economy of the country.
Earlier in 2011, devastating floods affected over seven million people in Sindh and as a result, 1.36 million homes were destructed.
Close to 2000 people were killed due to the catastrophic floods which hit the Indus River Basin area in 2010.
