Small cause, big consequences. Some 100,000 people have been evacuated from flooded villages in Pakistan’s Punjab province after India spilled thousands of cubic meters of water into the Sutlej River on Sunday. Several hundred villages in Punjab were submerged by the flooding of this river and thousands of hectares of agricultural land were destroyed.
After experiencing torrential monsoon rains that caused flooding, India dumped nearly 85,000 m3 per second of excess water in its reservoirs on Sunday, according to Mohsin Naqvi, the head of the Punjab government, causing thus floods downstream, on the Pakistani side.
India dumps excess water, dikes break
The dykes supposed to protect the dwellings did not resist and hundreds of villages are no longer accessible by road. Relief operations are continuing in flooded areas, where authorities have to use boats to shelter men, women, children and livestock.
“There is too much water here. The children are hungry and they have nothing to eat,” lamented Sidhra Bibi, a villager who found refuge in a camp in Kasur, one of the seven districts at least affected or about to be affected. “All the crops have been destroyed. We don’t even have a house,” she lamented.
At least 175 people have died in Pakistan in floods, building collapses, landslides and other incidents triggered by monsoon rains since late June. Among them, 16 perished between July 9 and August 22 in floods directly caused by India’s regular dumping of water, according to Pakistani authorities.