SIALKOT/GUJRANWALA, July 8: About 90 villages and thousands of acres of agricultural land were inundated in various parts of Sialkot and Gujranwala by the high flood in rivers Chenab and Tavi. Seasonal crops on large tracts of land and livestock have been washed away in many areas.

With mud-houses collapsing along the rivers’ route, hundreds of villages have been evacuated and people are being moved to safe places by the army’s rescue teams. Relief and rescue operations have also been launched by several non-governmental organisations.

According to officials of the Sialkot Flood Commission, the surge in river Chenab was receding at Head Marala, as the danger of ‘very high’ flood has been averted.

According to official sources the flood at Marala peaked at 325,000 cusecs, instead of 575,000 cusecs as had been feared after the release of water in the Chenab in occupied Jammu and Kashmir.

They said that due to the ‘low flood peak’, the danger of a very high flood sweeping through the cities of Sialkot, Gujrat, Mandi Bahauddin, Gujranwala, Hafizabad, Jhang, Chiniot and Sargodha and a large number of villages had been averted.

Our correspondent in Sukkur adds: The Right guide bank, J.spur, Tori Bungalow, Makhwani bund, Ghoraghat bund, Tori cross bund and KK bund of the Guddu command area are under serious threat as the flow of water at Guddu has increased and according to officials 483,000 cusecs of water passed through the Guddu barrage at 6pm on Friday.

Besides, the Bhong bund in the border area of Sindh-Punjab, about 21 miles away from Guddu, the river Indus was eroding embankments. Federal minister Raees Muneer Ahmed and hundreds of his men are supervising an operation to fortify the embankments.

At the Jacobabad-Badani area, 23 villages have been inundated. Irrigation authorities termed Friday night crucial and said that after Friday’s surge, the flood would recede at the Guddu barrage and the pressure would shift to the Sukkur barrage.

Embankments near the Guddu barrage were under pressure as the water released by India had reached the area. The local administration and army personnel are patrolling the embankments.

According to Dawn report from Dadu, the Indus River started eroding the right bank of the Dadu-Moro bridge on Friday.

The water flow was increasing at the bridge and hundreds of acres of land have been inundated in Katcho area of the district along the right bank of the river.

Reports said that nine villages of Katcha area Bhutta-ja-Bhan, Hajan Shah-ja-Bhan, Khokhar-ja-Bhan, Chandio-ja-Bhan, Saindad-ja-Bhan, Korejo village, Rajo Deero, Mastoi village and Juneja were flooded.

Three other villages, Sono Deero, Malik and Junalo near the Dadu-Moro bridge, are also facing the fury of the flood.

Executive engineer Mithal Abbasi of the South Irrigation Division told newsmen that checkposts had been set up at every kilometre along the Larkana-Sehwan Bund in Dadu district and sufficient goods and material had been provided to irrigation officials to cope with any emergency.

APP adds: An irrigation department spokesman in Sukkur said that the water level at Gudu and Sukkur barrages was constantly rising and an addition of more than 90,000 cusecs was recorded at up-stream of Gudu at 6pm on Friday over the level recorded 24 hours earlier.

He said that the maximum discharge at upstream of Gudu barrage on Friday evening was 4,43,660 cusecs, and 4,14,357 cusecs downstream.

At Sukkur barrage, the upstream discharge was 2,57,793 cusecs and 2,06,388 cusecs downstream. Therefore there was an addition of about 48,000 cusecs discharge at upstream of Sukkur barrage over the past 24 hours.

The flood position at Gudu and Sukkur was described as of moderate nature, and with the expected arrival of flash floods in the next phase from upcountry, irrigation officials here anticipated the discharge to increase from 500,000 to 600,000 cusecs between July 9 and July 12.

In Islamabad, chairman of the flood control commission I.B. Sheikh said the level at Marala had started receding.

About the situation at other stations on the route, he said that according to the Friday morning data, 341,000 cusecs of water had reached Khanki Headwork and the outflow at the station was the same.

He said that had the amount of water been in accordance with the initial warning it would have posed a serious threat to life and property. The present flow, he added, was not expected to spill over the banks except in some low-lying areas.