In view of the devastating floods, Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) has been providing technical support to provincial governments so that they could ensure safety of barrages and allied structures located at the main rivers, especially at River Indus.
Federal Water & Power Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf, Wapda Chairman, Shakil Durrani along-with a high-level technical team comprising Wapda water wing member and experts, has been constantly reviewing the situation of water-flow at the barrages. In this connection, they stayed in Sukkur for five days.
In their meetings with the provincial management and barrage authorities, Wapda chairman and member (water wing) suggested various options to help the government devise strategy for safety of Guddu and Sukkur barrages. In addition, it provided heavy machinery to strengthening the flood protection mechanism at Sukkur barrage.
Earlier, Durrani visited Jinnah, Taunsa and Guddu barrages. He also visited Jinnah Hydropower Project to inspect damages caused by the flood; these projects have been undertaken by Wapda on River Indus. Durrani also visited flood relief and medical camps set up by Wapda near Jinnah Hydropower project and Taunsa Barrage.
Wapda has also established Prime Minister's Relief & Medical Camp for affectees of the flood on Tuesday in Muzaffargarh. The authority has also set up a number of relief & medical camps for the affectees in the areas adjacent to Khan Khwar, Mangla Dam Raising, Jinnah Hydropower and Rainee canal projects.
These camps have been set up at Besham in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Sanghot and Thothal in Mirpur district of Azad Jammu & Kashmir, Mari Indus and Taunsa in Punjab, and Guddu in Sindh. The camps are fully functional under the auspices of project authorities. Besides providing food items to the affectees, medical teams comprising doctors and other allied staff, have also been stationed at the camps for treatment of ailing people in the affected areas. Medicines are also being provided to the local populace to prevent epidemics in the areas.