The Relief, Rehabilitation and Settlement Department on Monday declared emergency in the flood/rain affected areas of Tehsil Shah Alam and Tehsil Mathra of Peshawar district with immediate effect till September 15, for carrying out relief activities. According to an official notification, emergency was declared on the request of the district administration Peshawar and Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA), due to flood situation. After a considerable decrease in flood water level, the affected people who had shifted to Motorway and other areas, were returning to their homes in Charsadda and Nowshera districts on Monday. Dozens of the affected families had returned to their hometowns on Sunday, while on Monday, scores of the remaining families who had left their inundated homes, were now returning to their areas in a bid to restart their routine life. According to the officials of district administrations Charsadda and Nowshera the cleanliness work in affected areas has been started prompting the people to return to their localities. They said in areas where the water has subsided and the rehabilitation process has begun, people were returning to homes to assess their damages and resettle their households. These areas were evacuated by the authorities three days ago to save people where the water level remained six feet high during the flooding situation. However with no new threat of flood wave and the water subsided on Sunday, the rehabilitation and resettlement of people have started in full swing from Monday morning. The administration officials said some of the low-lying areas were still inundated hoping that these affected areas would be cleared today from accumulated water. The officials said most of the areas were covered with mud and heavy machinery has been provided to clear the mud from these areas. Meanwhile, the devastating flood that badly affected life and property from hilly terrains to the downward plains, has also ruined a shelter house for stray dogs in Sardaryab area of Charsadda district. “Lucky Animal Protection Shelter that was home to more than 250 stray and abandoned dogs has been badly hit by floods in Charsadda and we have to evacuate the animals in emergency,” reads an SOS call made by Zeba Masood, founder of the sanctuary.