Punjab floods: Fifth breach in Ghaggar river keeps Sardulgarh town on toes

The Ghaggar’s fury continued to keep Punjab’s Mansa district on tenterhooks with the river causing a fifth breach at Phus Mandi in Sardulgarh sub-division on Tuesday.

After the breach, the floodwater moved towards Saduwala village and reached the periphery of Sardulgarh town, which is only 5km from Phus Mandi. The water is a few metres away from the highway connecting Sardulgarh with Haryana. Villagers have started putting up temporary embankments near the highway to prevent it from entering Sardulgarh town.

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Mansa deputy commissioner Rishi Pal Singh said: “I’m at the spot and we are trying to plug the breach. As of now, water has reached the periphery of Sardulgarh. We are making all efforts to plug the four other breaches, too.”

The district administration had managed to plug a small breach at Kalipur Dum village late on Monday. Sardulgarh sub-divisional magistrate Amrinder Singh Malhi said: “The sixth breach had taken place at Kalipur Dum but we plugged it before it became wider.”

On Saturday, the Ghaggar river’s embankments at Rorki village and near Chandpura bundh in Budhlada sub-division gave way on the Punjab side. On Monday, two breaches occurred at Jhande Khurd village and Rorki village in Sardulgarh.

The authorities are yet to plug the 100-ft Chandpura Bundh breach even after 72 hours. An army unit is deployed to plug the breaches but it is waiting for the water level to recede and the flow to ease. The Ghaggar is flowing at 24.6 feet, 3.6 feet over the danger mark.

So far, floodwaters have entered 17 villages of Budhladha, Jhunir and Sardulgarh blocks in Mansa district and six villages have been inundated.

People of the affected villages were shifted to relief camps on Monday.