MULTAN, Pakistan: Displaced families began returning home as floodwaters significantly receded across much of Pakistan’s eastern Punjab province, where swollen rivers displaced more than 2.5 million people and killed about 100 during weeks of monsoon deluges, officials said Monday.
Photos and videos posted on social media show lush fields that once swayed with crops are now only sand and silt. Returning residents said they will have to replant while rebuilding their homes.
Floodwater levels are decreasing at Panjnad, where the Jhelum, Chenab, Ravi, Beas and Sutlej rivers all converge before flowing into the Indus, said Irfan Ali Kathia, the authority’s director general.
Rescue and relief operations in some districts are ongoing, officials said.
Nargis Bibi, 46, from a village in Kasur district, said the Sutlej river swept into her village home, forcing her to flee with her husband, daughter and two sons.
“We waded through 5 to 6 feet of water to reach a safe place, but the flood came so suddenly that we couldn’t take even a needle with us,” she said. “When we returned, everything was destroyed.”
Muhammad Sajjad, a 43-year-old farmer from an orchard-owning family, said floodwaters from the Chenab river had receded by about 6 feet near Multan, allowing his family to return home.
More than 4,500 villages in Punjab were inundated during weeks of torrential rains and repeated water releases from overflowing dams in neighboring India, according to the Punjab Disaster Management Authority.
The flow of water in the Ravi and Chenab rivers has returned to normal and levels on the Sutlej river is falling, the agency said.
India shared at least six flood alerts with Pakistan in recent weeks and the water releases swelled rivers in Punjab, causing significant damage, according to Pakistan’s National Disaster Management Authority.
The agency directed returning residents to follow instructions from local administrators so they can receive government assistance or stay in camps if their villages remain unsafe.
The flooding would not have been as severe if India had released water from its dams gradually, Pakistani officials said.
The floodwaters are moving south toward Pakistan’s Sindh province, which bore the brunt of Pakistan’s catastrophic 2022 floods that killed more than 1,700 people nationwide.
Punjab carried out one of its largest rescue and relief operations with provincial teams assisted by the military, Kathia said.
Stranded families in the remote villages of Liaquatpur and Jalalpur Pirwala continue to receive aid. Many displaced residents have returned to their homes in Narowal, Okara, Kasur, Bahawalpur and Bahawalnagar, Kathia said.
More than 950 people have died nationwide in flooding since late June.
