NEW DELHI/LAHORE: Heavy rain in the Himalayas continued to lash northern Pakistan and neighbouring India on Thursday with flooding of homes and highways worsening as major rivers overflowed.
Although weather officials in India forecast some respite from downpours later in the day, Pakistan has warned that rain is expected to continue until September 9.
A fierce monsoon season has brought immense destruction in the region this year, killing 880 in Pakistan over the season while in India, nearly 150 people have lost their lives in August alone.
Torrential rain has swollen many rivers, spurring authorities in India to release water from dams and further flooding areas on both sides of the border.
The countries share rivers, which flow from India into Pakistan. New Delhi has issued seven warnings to Islamabad about opening dam gates, three in the last 24 hours, officials in Pakistan said.
Irfan Ali Kathia, director-general of the Provincial Disaster Management Authority, told Reuters on Thursday that three rivers in Pakistan have been affected by the release of more water from Indian dams.
India’s foreign and water resources ministries did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for a comment.
Villages marooned after deadly floods in India’s Punjab
The two countries share a border along their breadbasket states, called Punjab on both sides, which has borne the brunt of the worst flooding in years.
In Indian Punjab, 37 people have died since the start of August and the rain has destroyed crops across tens of thousands of hectares.
The state government said it would provide 710 million rupees ($8 million) in flood relief and that nearly all of its 23 districts have been impacted.
In Pakistan’s Punjab, 1.8 million people have been evacuated in recent weeks after floodwaters submerged nearly 3,900 villages.
Authorities in Pakistan said on Thursday that to save the historic city of Multan from being flooded, they are considering breaching the Chenab riverbank.
That will allow water to be released into the city’s outskirts so the river’s levels can come down.
Flooding in Delhi
India’s Yamuna river rose to dangerous levels in the capital Delhi – a flow the Central Water Commission described as a ‘severe’ situation.
On Thursday, muddy water poured into homes in low-lying areas, from which thousands had already been evacuated to safer places as a precaution.
Authorities shut the historic Loha Pul, or Iron Bridge, spanning the Yamuna in the older part of the city.
People waded through floodwaters in areas surrounding the historic Red Fort, many carrying an idol of Lord Ganesha, that is often immersed in river waters in a Hindu ritual at this time of year.
India’s Yamuna river crosses danger mark as heavy rains flood parts of Delhi
Residential areas were flooded in Srinagar, the summer capital of India’s Jammu and Kashmir federal territory, after a breach of the Jhelum river embankment, while 9,000 people were evacuated in Budgam, the local commissioner said.
“The Jhelum is climbing, but at a much slower rate than was feared,” Omar Abdullah, Jammu and Kashmir’s chief minister, said on X. “The administration is not going to lower its guard. We continue to monitor the situation very closely.”
Rescuers searched for people trapped under debris after the rain triggered a landslide at the Ratle hydroelectric power project on the Chenab river in Drabshalla, officials said.
Indian weather officials have forecast showers will ease on Thursday, with moderate rain expected in Jammu and Kashmir and the state of Uttarakhand.
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