Pakistan authorities blew up an embankment next to a monsoon-engorged dam on Wednesday as flooding submerged one of the world’s holiest Sikh sites.
Three transboundary rivers in the east of the country have swollen to exceptionally high levels as a result of heavy rains across the border in India.
It has triggered flood alerts throughout Punjab province, home to nearly half of Pakistan’s 255 million people. The army was also deployed to help evacuate people and livestock near the Chenab, Ravi and Sutlej rivers.
Around 210,000 people had moved to another location, according to the disaster authorities.
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.
Pakistan authorities said neighbouring India had released water from upstream dams on its side of the border, further increasing the flow headed towards Pakistan.
Islamabad’s 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.
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.
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© Agence France-Presse
