The Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) has issued an alert, 24NewsHD TV channel reported on Tuesday.

Seven districts of Punjab are at risk due to floods in the Sutlej River and the PDMA wrote to the authorities concerned that the areas of Kasur, Sahiwal, Okara, Pakpattan, Vehari, Bahawalpur and Bahawalnagar may be affected.

Deputy commissioners and district disaster management officials have been instructed to devise a strategy under SOPs to deal with the situation, Punjab Relief Commissioner Nabil Javed.

The admins should complete their arrangements on an emergency basis, he said adding that all the available resources should be utilities to cope with the possible challenge.

Negligence or laziness in duties cannot be tolerated, he averred, adding that people should be evacuated from possible flood areas immediately.

Food, accommodation and medicines should be arranged for the people, he stressed, adding that the health department, livestock and other institutions have also completed their preparations.  Equipment, generators and heavy machinery used in floods should be properly managed.

Earlier in the day, Punjab Chief Minister Mohsin Naqvi presided over a meeting on measures to deal with possible floods.

He ordered evacuation from the vulnerable settlements around the Sutlej River.  People must be shifted to safer places to avert an untoward incident, he said, ordering round-the-clock monitoring of the Ravi, Chenab and Sutlej rivers. Cattle should also be moved to safe places, he maintained.

The chief minister directed the top brass of Lahore, Sahiwal, Multan and Bahawalpur to be vigilant and brace for the possible challenge.

People should be informed about the weather and water situation in rivers through social media and other means of communication.

All the departments concerned like the Irrigation Department must stand alert, he said stressing that negligence will not be tolerable.