NAROWAL: Authorities carried out a controlled blast on an embankment beside a rain-swollen dam on Wednesday, as floodwaters submerged one of the holiest Sikh sites.
Torrential rains across the border in India have pushed three transboundary rivers in eastern Pakistan — the Chenab, Ravi and Sutlej — to dangerously high levels, prompting flood alerts across Punjab, the country’s most populous province.
The army has been deployed to assist with evacuations of residents and livestock from low-lying areas, while disaster authorities said some 210,000 people have already relocated to safer ground.
At the Qadirabad dam on the Chenab River, authorities carried out a controlled explosion of an embankment on Wednesday as the water levels rose.
“To save the structure, we have breached the right marginal embankment so that the flow of the water reduces,” said Mazhar Hussain, a spokesperson for Punjab’s disaster management agency.
The Kartarpur temple, which marks where the founder of the Sikh faith Guru Nanak is said to have died in 1539, was submerged by floodwater.
Five boats were sent to the sprawling site to rescue around 100 stranded people.
Authorities said neighbouring India had released water from upstream dams on its side of the border, further increasing the flow headed towards Punjab.
The foreign ministry said New Delhi gave advanced notice through diplomatic channels ahead of opening the spillways.
Indian government officials have not commented.
The flood surge “is expected to pass through Lahore tonight and tomorrow morning”, provincial disaster chief Irfan Ali said of the Punjab capital on Wednesday.
Pakistan has been battered by a brutal monsoon season this year, with landslides and floods triggered by torrential rain killing more than 800 people since June.
