The Federal Flood Commission (FFC) has called for repairing a pre-flood radar warning system installed at Mangla to contain the extent of damages during this monsoon season.
The commission’s representative was speaking at the annual meeting of the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) held on Monday. This was the fourth such meeting held since 2007.
The FFC representative informed the meeting about a number of remedial measures, including the formation of a Flood Coordination Cell.
NDMA Chairman Lt-Gen (retd) Nadeem Ahmad said that although there are no expectations of floods during the current monsoon season, the authorities concerned are ready to counter any emergency situation.
Appreciating the role played by provincial authorities, he said that Sindh and Balochistan NDMA had effectively handled the situation ahead of the Cyclone Phet because of advance information about it. He said that relevant response agencies had also showed extraordinary coordination.
Stressing the need for greater coordination among army, the irrigation department, Wapda and NDMA, he asked the stakeholders to accelerate the approval and funding for pending projects like the Shahdara bridge and Pat Feeder Canal.
He said that the water level in artificial lake in Hunza had decreased after equalisation of inflow and outflow. The outflow is currently 16,000 cusecs, which will increase over the next few days.
Wapda representative assured the meeting that an overflow in the Hunza lake posed no threat to the Tarbela Dam.
During the meeting, the Director-General Metrological Department, Qamar Zaman Chaudhary, predicted that this year’s monsoon will be slightly higher than the previous year.
Assuring prompt and accurate weather forecasting, he said that the monsoon season will start within the next 10 days, adding that an effective warning system will be introduced.
Meanwhile, the representatives of Sindh, Balochistan and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa complained about non-issuing of funds for water projects.
(with Additional input from online)
Published in The Express Tribune, June 29th, 2010.
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