Director General of the Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) Punjab, Irfan Ali Kathia, on Saturday said that 50 precious lives have been lost in areas affected by the floods, and the families of the deceased will receive financial assistance of Rs1 million each.

Speaking at a press conference in Lahore, he mentioned that Sialkot and Gujrat are the most flood-affected districts. All necessary facilities have been provided in Gujrat to support relief efforts. He added that the situation in Gujrat is expected to improve within the next 12 to 14 hours. Rain has been forecast in various divisions of Punjab, but water levels in the province’s rivers are gradually decreasing.

He also noted that no new flood alerts have been issued for any rivers in the past 18 to 22 hours.

Over the past 24 hours, the water level in the Sutlej River has been receding.

The DG further explained that the water level at Ganda Singh Wala is decreasing, while the flow at Jassar is recorded at 71,000 cusecs, at Ravi Siphon 110,000 cusecs, and at Shahdara 107,000 cusecs. At Sadhnai, the water flow is at 170,000 cusecs.

Kathia also stated that water levels have decreased at Multan and Sher Shah, and the upcoming spell of rainfall in the province is not expected to be very intense.