Valley Rivers Swell As Glaciers Melt

Pulwama Areas Under Laar Waters

SRINAGAR Rivers and streams in the valley have registered an alarming increase in water levels due to the intense spell of heal gripping the region.

Several government departments have been put on alert to deal with an imminent threat of floods, even as over two hundred households have been displaced in Pulwama due to waters from the swollen Laar nullah entering inhabited areas.

Glaciers melting under the abnormally high temperatures have raised levels in the Jhelum and other rivers and streams of the valley.

In Pulwama a sudden surge in the Laar stream has inundated a large area in Jora village displacing 250 of its six hundred households, a KNS report said.

Scores of houses have come under water and hundreds of kanals of land have been submerged, the report said. People have fled their homes seeking higher ground for safety.

The Aribal area, located on the banks of the Laar too has been inundated. Water has entered dozens of residential houses the report said.

A delegation from the affected areas has met the additional deputy commissioner Pulwama to apprise him of the situation.

The ADC has directed the tehsildar concerned to dispatch a team to review the situation and organise relief for the flood-hit population

Water has entered paddy fields in several places in the utile} because of rivers over-flowing their banks.

Experts fear that a flood situation is imminent if the heat spell persists with its present intensity. The govt has ordered the departments concerned at the district level to be on alert to deal with any eventuality.

The metrological department says that although the maximum temperature is 5 degrees Celsius above normal and the minimum temperature 7 degrees Celsius above normal, the present situation cannot be characterised as an intense or extraordinary heat wave

The rest of the Country is experiencing normal monsoons and rainfall can be expected in the valley within the next two to three days, a spokesman of the metrological department said. (Kashmir Observer, 01 July, 2005)