The government has directed all the departments concerned to take appropriate steps to avert maximum life and property losses during monsoon season as 10-20 percent above the normal rains are expected. Federal Minister for Water and Power Khawaja Muhammad Asif said this while chairing the meeting of National Flood Commission (NFC) on Wednesday held to review arrangements made to tackle any flood situation in current monsoon season.
The meeting was briefed about measures taken by different organisations to mitigate the damages of floods. The meeting was told that National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) in collaboration with Provincial Disaster Management Authorities (PDMAs) has finalised all necessary arrangements for tackling expected flooding situation. The NDMA representatives informed the participants that in case of serious situation, Pakistan Army was also ready for the rescue and relief efforts.
The minister directed all organisations to remain alert to meet any untoward situation. The meeting was informed that due to climate change and its particular impacts on Pakistan in recent years, the frequency and intensity of floods and corresponding damages increased manifold, making it imperative to have an integrated and innovative approach to flood protection.
The flood plan maps, prepared by consultants, ie NESPAK have already been distributed to the provinces wherein the level and extent of inundation are clearly marked with respect to various scenarios of water flows in rivers. It was stressed that now the onus lied with Provincial and Federal Line Agencies to cope with any flood situation arising during the 2016 Monsoon season.
The meeting was briefed by the Chairman Federal Flood Commission on different aspects of the plan. He informed that floods were the most devastating natural disasters and were generally caused by heavy concentrated rainfall in the catchments during the Monsoon Season (July through September). During the past six years, overall damages due to floods are almost equal to total flood damages in preceding 60 years.
Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) of Mangla and Tarbela Dam were also presented to inform all stakeholders about their operation during the flood season. Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) presented the forecast for 2016 Monsoon Season. The minister instructed the PMD to improve their weather forecast system to give ample time to deal with any emergency situation.
The preparedness of NDMA/PDMAs was also discussed in detail with regard to relief and rescue preparations. The minister directed them to remain vigilant throughout the flood season and further improve upon the already made preparations. In view of forecast of rains and expected urban flooding, provinces were asked to be vigilant and ready. Secondly, encroachments restricting free flow of rivers which may result in floods were discussed and relevant authorities were asked to remove these bottlenecks. Additionally, desilting and removal of encroachments of Nullahs passing through urban areas including Rawalpindi, Multan, Sialkot, Lahore and Faisalabad was stressed.
The meeting was informed that floods were causing serious life and property losses in Kacha areas and authorities kept warning the people living there but they ignored warnings so there is a need to resolve this situation so that life and property losses could be minimised.
On this occasion, FFC shared Annual Flood Report 2015 according to which there is a lack of effective co-ordination among institutions involved in flood management, caused in part by limitations of technical capacities such as dissemination of early warning, disaster preparedness measures, emergency response and structural measures for flood mitigation.
The report said that the local communities do not have enough disaster preparedness information and there is lack of general awareness for raising, sensitisation and education of the masses regularly affected by floods, focusing especially on populations residing within the active flood plains along major and other rivers. Floods in Pakistan are generally caused by the heavy concentrated rainfall, which are sometimes augmented by snowmelt due to high temperature and generate exceptionally high flood flows in major and other rivers flowing across the country.
In view of increasing flood damages, the Ministry of Water And Power through Federal Flood Commission (FFC) formulated 10 years plan through World Bank funding. Internationally renowned experts in water resources and flood management, "The Deltares" of Netherlands along with (NESPAK) were engaged in this regard.
According to a report of the Federal Flood Commission, the country has endured a cumulative financial loss of over $38.165 billion during the past 68 years. Around 12,177 people lost their lives, some 197,230 villages damaged/destroyed and an area more than 616,598 Sq.km was affected due to 23 major flood events. The upcoming monsoon is predicted to possibly bring torrential floods in the mountains of Suleiman range. In 2010, gushing flows of Suleiman range abruptly bloated the flow of Indus deriding all predictions of the volume of flood in Sindh. The province was set to receive a flood of 800,000 cusecs which eventually swelled to over 1.1 million cusecs causing an unprecedented devastation in vast areas on the right bank of Indus.