High flood in River Indus at Guddu has inundated large areas of district Rahim Yar Khan, affecting communication infrastructure, houses and standing crops, Federal Flood Commission (FFC) sources told Business Recorder here on Sunday evening.
They said that due to current wave of flood in River Indus, low lying areas around Taunsa, Guddu, Sukkur and population in the flood plains in Kutcha areas of Sindh is likely to be affected. Army has deployed its troops between Taunsa and Guddu and downstream Sukkur to cope up with any emergency.
According to the daily flood situation reports of the NWFP, FFC and Punjab, on Sunday River Indus was flowing in high flood at Guddu with an inflow of 5,48,000 cusecs, in medium flood in Chashma-Taunsa Reach and at Sukkur barrage whereas at Tarbela and Kalabagh locations it was flowing in low flood.
A report of the NWFP government said that Rivers Kabul, Swat, Khiali, and Shah Alam were in high flood at some locations and thunderstorms caused widespread damage to the standing crops in the districts of D.I. Khan and Lakki Marwat on Saturday night.
The Punjab government has also reported wide spread damage in the district of Layyah because of flood in Indus at Taunsa where 88 villages, 67,970 persons, crops over 1,03,763 acres have been affected and 7989 houses destroyed.
As per Flood Forecasting Division (FFD) report, River Indus at Guddu is likely to remain in high flood during the next 24 hours whereas it is likely to enter into high flood stage at Sukkur sometimes during the same period. At Kalabagh, Chashma and Taunsa locations, it is likely to remain in medium flood. Rivers Chenab, Jhelum, Ravi and Sutlej will continue to flow normally in the Punjab province
The report added that a Monsoon Low was prevailing over Head Bay of Bengal and the FFD was closely monitoring this flood-generating system as to its intensity and likely impact on Pakistan's main river system.
According to the report, Saturday's Westerly Wave over Kashmir continues to persist whereas the influence of seasonal low over Balochistan has extended up to Northern Punjab and NWFP.
Scattered rains of light to moderate intensity have been reported over Kohat, D.I. Khan, Sargodha, Rawalpindi, D G Khan, Gujranwala and Faisalabad divisions besides southern Kashmir and northeastern Balochistan during the past twenty four hours. Significant rainfall over 25-mm was reported from D.I. Khan from Sargodha 38-mm, Malamjabba 32-mm and Jassar-30 mm.
Meteorological Department forecast scattered thunderstorm/rain over NWFP, Kashmir northern Punjab including Rawalpindi, Sargodha, Gujranwala and Lahore Divisions.