Flood assessment: Gilani calls for flood management plan

PM asks for chalking out plan for overflow channel management.

ISLAMABAD:

Flood management should not be confined to the safety of dam structures but it should encompass all facets of accurate forecasting and timely dissemination of warning so that the administration could relocate people in the area likely to be affected well ahead of the calamity, Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani said on Thursday.

He was chairing a meeting at the Prime Minister Secretariat, the first-ever held to assess flood preparedness ahead of the monsoon season.

Stressing the need to remove institutional bottlenecks, Prime Minister Gilani said that there was a need to devise a strategy to face future challenges.

Early warning and proper arrangements, he said, would reduce the effects of natural calamities. , he added, for flood forecasting.

Focusing on the need for organisational capacity-building, he said plans should also be chalked out for flood relief, management of overflow channels for barrages and headworks, safety of protective embankments, realignment of important channels for releasing excess water and the development of alternative road links.

Emergency services, the prime minister said, should be efficient and well-coordinated at national, provincial, and district levels.

Expressing the hope that this time around the country would be “better prepared to handle any adverse situation during and after the monsoons”, Gilani instructed the cabinet division and the National Disaster Management Authority to come up with a comprehensive plan to reduce and eventually end the country’s dependence on foreign assistance

He ordered officials of the Pakistan Meteorological Department to approach their counterparts in developed countries, especially China, to help them in developing a better forecasting model.

Directing the ministry of water and power to coordinate with provincial governments and experts to prepare a strategy on ways to deal with specific breaches, he said that during floods, nobody should be allowed to breach any canal or protective wall on their own.

He also ordered the NDMA chief, secretaries for communication, water and power and top officials of other departments concerned to personally visit vulnerable areas.

The prime minister said that adequate quantity of relief goods should be available at district level to meet any eventuality.

He said that it was essential for the health, water and power and communications ministries to improve coordination ahead of the monsoon season. Authorities were also told to regularly inspect primary embankments. He also called for making disaster management authorities at district level more effective.



Published in The Express Tribune, June 26^th, 2011.