Fresh monsoon rains leave Punjab largely unaffected after swift dewatering

WEB DESK:  The latest spell of monsoon rainfall across Punjab caused no significant disruption, with the provincial government attributing the situation to swift and effective dewatering measures.

According to Punjab government spokespersons, the latest rainfall spell was expected across all the Punjab regions. However, the state-of-the-art dewatering system is working under the provincial development programme for which the provincial government has reserved Rs500 billion.

The initiative that the Punjab administration has undertaken has been completed only 25 per cent of the total, with the remaining 75 per cent of the work underway, said the government officials.

The initiative includes a total of 67 major cities of Punjab and “the newly in-place system can dewater up to 250mm rainwater in no time”.

The initiative, launched in 2025, has also placed underground water tanks that have the capacity of storing water through the reverse wheel system. Earlier, monsoon spells used to cause damage to the key infrastructure of the province, but now it happens no more, as the government has actively been monitoring the situation.

Regarding the monsoon monitoring system, the spokespersons said that top-level management directors have been given the key areas of at least 41 cities, aimed at predicting weather updates.

At least 37 people have died in rain-related incidents as the ongoing monsoon spell triggered flash floods and landslides, damaging houses, crops, livestock and roads in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Gilgit-Baltistan, Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Punjab.

The death toll from flash floods and other rain-related incidents rose to 20 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and 17 in Punjab, while landslides triggered by rains in KP, GB and AJK damaged roads, crops and houses.

Rains across Punjab

As intermittent heavy rain lashed several cities in Punjab, with Gujranwala being the worst hit, the death toll jumped to 17.

Of the deaths, 12 were caused by the collapse of buildings or other structures, two by lightning strikes and three from electrocution.

According to the Water and Sanitation Agency, a record 245mm was recorded in Gujranwala, while Lahore received 123mm of rainfall, Sialkot received 139mm of rainfall, and Mandi Bahauddin received 138mm. The PDMA said 117mm of rainfall was recorded in Narowal, 85mm in Hafizabad, 95mm in Gujrat, 70mm in Chakwal, 64mm in Okara, 35mm in Jhang, 33mm in Layyah and 32mm in Jhelum.