22 villages in Punjab's Multan district partially submerged under floodwaters

At least 22 mouzas, or revenue estates, in Multan district have been partially submerged under three to four feet of floodwater from the River Chenab, forcing thousands of residents to move their families and livestock to higher ground as standing crops across the affected areas are destroyed.

Where the flooding hit

The submerged areas span three tehsils. In Multan Saddar, four mouzas, Abu Hatta, Vellan, Dhello and Zaman Pur, have been affected. Shujaabad has seen seven mouzas flooded, including Soman, Pounta, Tahir Pur, Marha, Agar Khawani, Dhundoon and Wanis. The largest concentration is in Jalalpur Pirwala, where 11 mouzas, including Ripri and Manik Wali among others, have gone under water.

The scale relative to the district

Multan district contains 545 mouzas in total, of which 138 are officially classified as flood-prone. The current 22 affected villages represent a meaningful slice of that at-risk total, though the district still has significant flood-prone territory that has so far avoided the worst of this particular surge.

What officials are saying

Deputy Commissioner Dr Faisal Saleem said the flood wave in the River Chenab had receded to around 110,000 cusecs, an improvement from earlier peak flows, but stressed that authorities remained vigilant given how quickly conditions can shift during an active monsoon period. His comments suggest the immediate danger has eased somewhat without officials declaring the situation fully resolved.

What residents built to protect themselves

Local activist Majid Zahoor described how communities had tried to defend themselves before the water arrived, noting that "all zamindara bunds constructed by locals on their own to stop the water were washed away." Zamindara bunds, earthen embankments built by farmers and landowners rather than government agencies, are a common but often fragile line of defence against river flooding in rural Punjab, and their failure here left the 22 mouzas with no barrier once the Chenab's flow rose.

Part of a larger flood season

This latest submersion follows an earlier round of monsoon rains that had already caused more than 100 deaths nationwide, meaning Multan's 22 flooded mouzas are adding to a season that was already unusually destructive before this specific flood wave arrived.

What's still coming

Forecasters are expecting fresh monsoon rainfall in the days ahead, with specific warnings about potential urban flooding in Lahore, Rawalpindi and Multan itself, meaning the district's affected communities may face renewed pressure on drainage and flood defences before they have finished recovering from this round.

With more than 400 of Multan's mouzas still classified as flood-prone but not yet affected, and fresh rain forecast for the same window, the coming days will determine whether the current recession in the Chenab's flow holds, or whether the 22 already-submerged villages are simply the first wave of a wider flooding event still to unfold.

For the families who have already moved their livestock and belongings out of the affected mouzas, the loss of standing crops alone represents a significant financial setback, on top of the disruption of leaving home entirely, and with the district's flood-prone total still largely untouched, many will be watching the river gauge as closely as the weather forecast in the days ahead.

The failure of the locally built zamindara bunds also raises questions about whether Multan's flood defences need government-backed reinforcement rather than relying on embankments farmers construct themselves each season, a gap that this latest submersion has exposed just as clearly as the flooding itself.