Pakistan issues flood warning after India releases water in Chenab river
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-07-08 09:34

Pakistan warned people living in seven districts along the banks of the Chenab river in the east of the country to leave their homes and move to safer locations due to an imminent flood threat.

Residents living close to the Chenab in Sialkot, Gujrat, Mandi Bahaudin, Jhang, Hafiz Abad, Wazirabad and Chiniot districts were told to evacuate to higher ground as radio and television broadcast flood warnings.

"River Chenab is expected to attain high flood situation as India has discharged some 564,000 cusec (cubic feet per second) water into it on Thursday morning, Meteorological Department chief Qamar-uz-Zaman Chaudhry told national television.

Pakistani people and vehicles wade through flooded streets in Lahore, 01 July 2005. Pakistan warned people living in seven districts along the banks of the Chenab river in the east of the country to leave their homes and move to safer locations due to an imminent flood threat. [AFP/File]

Due to additional water entering the Chenab, a high-flood situation was expected in several cities of Punjab province, he said.

Meanwhile river authorities in the eastern city of Lahore said India had informed Pakistan before releasing the water into the Chenab.

"Chenab is flowing in high flood situation in Pakistan," Indus water commissioner Syed Jamat Ali Shah told AFP.

"It is at dangerous level... next eight to 10 hours are critical," Shah said.

The government has set up flood warning centres in the relevant areas and launched efforts to help people evacuate, he said.

Another senior water official Safdar Javed told AFP that emergency relief and rescue teams had been dispatched to flood-prone districts.

Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz also reviewed the flood monitoring system, a government spokesman told AFP.

Aziz instructed the authorities to carry out rescue and relief operations promptly and assured all possible assistance by the federal government, he said.

The Chenab flows into Pakistan from the Indian zone of Kashmir. Pakistan has raised objections over India's building of a 450-megawatt Baglihar power project on the Chenab, saying it violated a 44-year-old water-sharing treaty.

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