Call to effectively handle hill torrents
Experts have underlined the need for formulating better management techniques to deal hill torrents and save human lives and infrastructure in the country.
They called for identifying incentives for hill torrents management to prevent future disasters.
This was gist of a one-day roundtable titled: "Climate Resilient Water Governance Approaches for Hill Torrent Management in Pakistan", organised by the Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI) in collaboration with Pakistan Rural Support Programmes Network (RSPN), and DAI the other day The roundtable aimed to stir result-oriented dialogue among the public, private sector, and civil society stakeholders to mull over hill torrents' floodwater governance issue. It incorporated community perspectives from representatives, who joined from hill torrent affected areas of Dera Ismail Khan, Rajanpur, Swat, Sindh and Balochistan.
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Speaking on the occasion, Federal Flood Commission (FFC) Chairman Ahmed Kamal said that Pakistan had been facing the worst flooding due to reverse monsoon activity as monsoon used to start from Tarbela, but in 2022 the low pressure was built up in the Sindh province that caused abnormal rains in both Sindh and Balochistan.
The sporadic flooding in September 2022 in Swat River and Kabul River also caused flooding in the areas, he said, adding that in Koh-e-Suleiman Range, Rajanpur and Dera Ghazi Khan areas hosted 11 hill torrents that caused havoc.
He noted that the total water storage capacity of the country was 3.43 million acres feet that comprised three dams, i.e. Tarbela, Chashma, and Mangla. He underlined that the country's priority was low towards mitigating natural disasters that needs to be addressed.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 19th, 2024.