Floods head south after ravaging heartland , The country is staring down the barrel of one of its most precarious flooding phases in recent years, with officials warning of catastrophic inundation in Sindh and Balochistan after weeks of devastation across Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.
Officials said nearly 1.5 million people have already been affected in Punjab, where at least 28 people have died, and further dangerous surges are expected in the coming days.
The flooding, fuelled by heavy rains and overflowing rivers, has already left a trail of destruction, forcing mass evacuations, submerging entire villages and wiping out thousands of acres of crops. Rescue teams, backed by the army, are in a race against the clock to move people and livestock to higher ground.
Large swaths of Punjab remain under water, particularly in Kasur, Multan, Sialkot, Rajanpur, Pakpattan and Chishtian. Three transboundary rivers cutting through Punjab have swollen to exceptionally high levels, impacting more than 2,300 villages.
Sharing official figures with the media, Senior Punjab Minister Marriyum Aurangzeb informed that 30 people had lost their lives while 2,038 villages across Punjab had been inundated by floodwaters from the Chenab, Ravi, and Sutlej rivers, affecting more than 1.5 million people. Of these, over 481,000 individuals have been safely relocated. She added that 1,169 villages were impacted by the River Chenab, 462 by the Ravi, and 391 by the Sutlej.
Aurangzeb said that 511 relief camps and 351 medical camps were operating round-the-clock, where 6,373 people were currently housed. To protect livelihoods, over 405,000 livestock had also been rescued and are being treated at 321 veterinary camps.
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