- CM Maryam chairs high-level meeting at PDMA to review rescue and relief efforts
- Orders tent villages, mobile bathrooms, food supplies, and Clinics-on-Wheels for victims
- Says 600,000 people and 450,000 animals evacuated in province’s ‘biggest rescue operation’
- Directs districts to deploy drones, barges, and dewatering pumps for timely response
LAHORE: Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz on Saturday chaired a high-level meeting at the Punjab Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) Headquarters to review the ongoing relief and rescue efforts in flood-hit areas, directing officials to go beyond “basic governance” and ensure no gaps remain in operations.
“Wherever possible, erect tent villages, provide mobile bathrooms, and prioritize sheltering people in school buildings located in safe zones,” she directed, highlighting that if segregation is required, “allocate separate facilities for men and women.”
CM Maryam directed health officials to maintain adequate stocks of medicines, vaccines, and antidotes and ensure that “Clinics on Wheels” are operating in sufficient numbers. She stressed that distressed citizens should not need to call for help. “Our field formations must know the ground situation—what is happening in every street, in every village,” she said.
In the war room with heads of all departments and the district administrations of Punjab, overseeing rescue and relief operations and guiding key decisions to aid people in need. pic.twitter.com/0FZ1tL3cMf
— Maryam Nawaz Sharif (@MaryamNSharif) August 30, 2025
The CM also ordered an uninterrupted supply of cooked food, dry rations, and drinking water to flood-affected families, along with fodder and water for livestock.
Reviewing the scale of operations, she described the evacuations as the “biggest in Punjab’s history,” noting that hundreds of thousands of people and animals had been rescued. “We are facing a situation unprecedented in decades,” she said. “Continuous rainfall coupled with India opening its spillways has swelled our rivers, causing massive flooding.”
Outlining Punjab’s five-tier flood response plan, she said the first stage was timely evacuation. “All commissioners and DCs carried out evacuations as best as possible. Containing this scale of flooding with available resources was beyond human capacity,” she observed. So far, around 600,000 people and 450,000 animals have been evacuated and transported to safer areas, she informed.
جہاں جہاں صورتحال بہتر ہورہی ہے وہاں منقطع راستوں کو فوراً بحال کیا جائے اسکے لیے آپکو جو بھی کرنا پڑے وہ آپ کریں تاکہ لوگوں کے رابطے نہ ٹوٹیں ,کرتار پور میں دربار صاحب میں 12 فٹ تک پانی تھا جسے 24 گھنٹے میں اسے صاف کیا گیا جس کیلیے میں ڈی سی نارووال کو شاباش دیتی ہوں۔… pic.twitter.com/SOdRh8mIi4
— PMLN (@pmln_org) August 30, 2025
CM Maryam stressed the need for airtight preparedness in districts still under threat, including Jhang, Muzaffargarh, Multan, and Okara. “District authorities must be ready for large-scale rescue. Use barges to move cattle in bulk,” she directed. She also urged the use of modern technology. “Deploy thermal-imaging drones to locate people in flood zones, and share the footage with me. This is the age of technology—use it to save lives.”
Turning to rehabilitation, the Chief Minister said dewatering operations must begin immediately where water has receded, particularly at hospitals and health facilities. “If a building is inaccessible, dewatering should be the first priority. Install pumps, deploy machinery—connections between people cannot be severed,” she said.
She cited the special dewatering operation at Kartarpur, where water was cleared within 24 hours, and thanked the Narowal deputy commissioner for the effort. She also directed the irrigation department to document lessons learned from each district to improve future response.
“When this operation is over, we will sit together as a team and implement those lessons,” she concluded, urging officials to keep their full focus on ongoing rescue and relief efforts.
