LAHORE (Kashmir English): Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz on Saturday said that more than 600,000 people and 450,000 livestock have been safely evacuated from flood-hit areas across the province.
During the briefing on the flood situation today, she lauded the timely response of the Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA), commissioners, and deputy commissioners in safeguarding populations.
The Punjab CM described it as the biggest evacuation and rescue operation in our history.
“We are facing a situation we haven’t faced in decades. There has been a continuous effect due to non-stop rainfall,” CM Maryam said. “Our neighbour, India, opened their spillways and all that water came into our rivers, overflowing them.”
Maryam Nawaz also commended the efforts of the district administration in Narowal for completing water drainage at Kartarpur Gurdwara within 24 hours, where flood levels had reached 12 feet.
The chief minister said the province has a five-tier plan, the first of which is evacuation. “All commissioners and DCs performed timely evacuations; containing this level of flooding with all resources was not humanly possible,” she outlined.
The CM added that timely evacuations need to be carried out in districts currently under threat from flooding, such as Jhang, Muzaffargarh, Multan, and Okara.
“Their preparedness needs to be airtight, and they need to be ready for rescue,” CM Maryam said, referring to district authorities. “All districts must use barges to load large numbers of cattle.”
