ISLAMABAD, Aug 25: Floods and heavy monsoon rains have killed 178 people and affected 1.5 million across the country in three weeks.

“At least 178 people have died and 1,503,492 others affected by recent monsoon rains and floods across the country,” a National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) official said, citing updated figures.

He said that the rains had wounded 855 people, affected 5,615 villages and destroyed 20,312 houses.

On Wednesday the figures stood at nearly one million people affected and 139 dead.

Nearly 350 relief camps had been set up to help people, mostly in Punjab, Sindh and Balochistan, the official said.Further heavy monsoon rains were expected next month, but the NDMA was fully prepared, he said.

Our staff reporter in Lahore adds: The Chenab at Panjnad and the Ravi at Sidhnai were in high flood on Sunday.

The Indus was in medium flood at Sukkur and in low flood at Chashma, Guddu and Kotri. The Sutlej was also in low flood at Sulemanki and Head Islam.

According to the Flood Forecasting Division, the Indus is likely to be in high flood at Guddu on Monday and Tuesday.

Several villages were inundated in Toba Tek Singh, Kamalia and Pir Mahal because of the Ravi flood.

Floodwaters from the Chenab inundated Basti Bakhtiari and adjoining villages around Panjnad. At least 24 villages of Muzaffargarh’s Alipur tehsil were flooded. Dozens of villages around Nau Raja Jhota, near Jalalpur, and Pirwala, Multan, were inundated by the raging Sutlej.

The FFD said there was no immediate threat of any more flood-generating rain.

It nevertheless forecast scattered thundershowers in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas, Malakand, Hazara, Peshawar, Kohat, Bannu, Rawalpindi, Islamabad and Kashmir for the next 24 hours.