Govt launches new flood management plan with ADB’s help

The government on Tuesday launched the National Master Plan on Flood Telemetry and National Consultation on Updated National Flood Protection (NFPP) Plan-IV that aimed at augmenting the existing meagre flood protection facilities through additional and new interventions.

The project seeks restoration and remodelling of the drains and waterways, particularly in Sindh, besides installation of flood telemetry network in the country to gauge all river, nullahs and streams at primary, secondary and tertiary levels for accurate and robust flood forecasting and warning.

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It will also include installation of stationary and mobile weather radars for flood monitoring, including flash flood and establishment of regional flood early warning centres in Quetta, Karachi, Hyderabad, Peshawar, Gilgit, Multan and Muzaffarabad.

At the launching ceremony, attended by Caretaker Water Resources Minister Ahmed Irfan Aslam, Asian Development Bank (ADB) Country Director Yong Ye, Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) Chief Engineer of Meteorology Khalid Memon, the minister received the master copy of the plan.

The project followed the Flood Protection Sector Project (FPSP)-III which was sponsored by the ADB. The FPSP aims to build resilience in the country against climate change impacts and improvement in flood management approaches through structural and non-structural interventions.

The National Master Plan envisages institutional strengthening and capacity-building of project coordination and monitoring units (PCMUs) for implementation of the FPSP-III and the NFPP-IV. It also covers schemes for management of flood waters from hill torrents of Koh-i-Suleiman and Kirthar range.

Flood telemetry equipment would also be installed along hill torrents of Dera Ghazi Khan, Rajanpur and Kirthar range besides enhancement of resilience of major cities through studies and structural interventions and retrofitting of existing flood protection facilities and information.

“The telemetry system will address acute data scarcity in water flow monitoring in the rivers, whereas new information sources and means will be identified in the future,” ADB Country Director Yong Ye told the launching ceremony.

“The implementation process will include a total of 707 telemetry systems, which will be installed in all the federating units of the country,” Water Resources Division Secretary Syed Ali Murtaza said in his opening remarks.

Engineer Memon said that the newly-established telemetry systems would “help us manage informed data and alerts pertaining to floods” stressing that it was not about technology rather shaping the country's future.