More than 140 villaged have been flodded in Punjab’s Mandi Bahauddin District.
The development comes as the Chenab River overflow triggered severe flooding in Mandi Bahauddin district after authorities breached the Bahu Manga embankment in Phalia tehsil.
This deliberate breach made on August 26, 2025, diverted millions of cusecs of floodwater to protect the critical Qadirabad headworks, resulting in over 140 villages submerged under 3-4 feet of water.
Electricity and water services have been disrupted, roads washed away, crops ruined, and livestock lost. The flooding has cut off land routes between Mandi Bahauddin and neighboring districts Hafizabad, Wazirabad, and Gujranwala, complicating relief efforts.
The breach flow has lasted over 24 hours, easing pressure on Qadirabad but severely impacting local communities. Emergency rescue teams and government officials are actively involved in evacuation and relief operations.
The Qadirabad headworks on the Chenab River have a designed capacity of around 800,000 to 900,000 cusecs of water flow. However, during the recent flood crisis, water flow reached and surpassed over 1,000,000 cusecs at Qadirabad, putting the headworks at extreme risk of collapse.
To manage this overwhelming floodwater pressure, authorities deliberately breached the embankment at Bahu Manga, diverting millions of cusecs away from the headworks to protect the irrigation system and nearby populated areas.
This breach reduced pressure on Qadirabad but led to severe flooding of surrounding villages as a controlled sacrifice for the greater protection of the infrastructure and lives downstream.