LAHORE: Torrential rains in Lahore broke a record of at least 44 years as the city witnessed a maximum rainfall of almost 360 millimetres within hours in the Airport area.
Mazhar Hussain, spokesperson for Punjab’s Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA), confirmed to Dawn.com that the record for maximum rainfall in a day during monsoon was broken.
The city was lashed by almost 360mm of rain in three hours, AFP quoted the Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) as saying, breaking a previous record of 332mm over three hours in July 1980.“This was record-breaking rainfall,” the agency’s deputy director Farooq Dar told AFP.
The PDMA has forecast the sixth spell of monsoon rains in Punjab to August 6. Most of the districts of south Punjab are likely to face strong winds and thundershowers during the period.
The PDMA spokesperson had noted that water levels in rivers, dams and streams were rising due to the monsoon rains. He had warned of moderate to high-level flooding in the river Jhelum at Mangla from Aug 1 to 4.
On Tuesday, a child and five women were killed and six others were injured due to heavy monsoon rains in various districts of Punjab.According to the Pakistan Meteorological Department’s Flood Forecasting Division, Lahore’s airport area recorded 337mm of rain in 24 hours till 8am today. Meanwhile, Lahore’s city area saw 118mm of rainfall.
Senior Punjab minister Marriyum Aurangzeb supervised the drainage operations carried out by various authorities, a statement from the Punjab chief minister’s office said.
It added that the Water and Sanitation Agency (Wasa), the Lahore Development Authority (LDA), Lahore West Management Authority and the district administration were collectively working to deal with the monsoon rains.
Aurangzeb said that as per the directives of Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz, the availability of water pumps and other necessary machinery had been ensured.She further said that hospitals had been provided with medicines and vaccines for poisonous insect bites. “Continuous monitoring is being done,” Marriyum stated.
Rainfall data issued by the Lahore Water and Sanitation Agency (Wasa) at 11:49am showed that the airport area received the highest amount of rain since the first spell of rain began at 4:45am.
