RAJANPUR:A dozen teams of Rescue 1122 from across Punjab operated day and night during 50 days of flood situation in three tehsils of Rajanpur district, where they handled 123,800 individuals, most of them flood hit people in need of shifting to safer places.
District Emergency Officer Rajanpur Dr Muhammad Aslam informed media persons on Friday that the rescue operation in Jampur and Rajanpur tehsils had concluded and some people also started returning to their flood destructed homes so that they could give details of damage to the surveyors as and when they reach out to them for preparation of loss assessment reports. However, rescue operation was still in progress in Rojhan Mazari tehsil, Dr Aslam told reporter .
He said that Rescue 1122 Rajanpur had started rescue operation from July 20-21 after rains over Suleman mountain triggered hill torrents hitting settlements in tribal area of the district. However, situation started turning worse when rain spells continued one after the other turning hill torrents ferocious and caused flooding that was enormously huge compared to past experiences, necessitating assistance from other districts.
He said a total of 580 water rescuers and 85 boats operated day and night during the rescue operation shifting exactly 123,800 individuals, including women, children, and elderly persons besides 10,200 cattle heads. The figure also included aid workers from various NGOs, welfare organizations and philanthropists who needed access to people stranded in flood hit areas and availed Rescue 1122 boat facility to hand over food and other relief items to them.
He said that in addition to rescuers from Rajanpur, those from Lahore, Multan, Bahawalpur, Rahimyar Khan, Muzaffargarh, Lodhran, Hafizabad, Toba Tek Singh, Vehari, Khanewal, and Bahawalnagar also participated in rescuing people from flooded areas and deserved commendation.
The rescuers, he said, distributed 40,650 food packets, and 268 tents among the affected people.
Rescue 1122 have now set up medical camps providing consultancy and free medicines to the affected people besides clean drinking water.
Dr Aslam said the rescuers whose own families were hit by floods, continued rescuing people immediately after rescuing their family members.