Via videoconference: In fifth session, president monitors flood work

Wheat seed must be distributed in time for the Rabi crop, local representatives told.

ISLAMABAD: President Asif Ali Zardari monitored the progress on flooded parts of Sindh over video conference with local representatives on Wednesday.

This was the fifth session and was held at the specialz flood control cell at Aiwan-e-Sadr. The president focused on the districts of Thatta, Badin, Hyderabad, Tando Allah Yar, Mirpurkhas, Matiari and Umerkot. He was assisted by information minister Firdous Ashiq Awan, water and power minister Syed Naveed Qamar, secretary general Salman Faruqui, Farahnaz Ispahani, Fouzia Wahab, Mehreen Anwer Raja, information secretary Taimur Azmat Osman, National Disaster Management Authority chairman Zafar Iqbal Qadir and officials from the National Database and Registration Authority.

The chief minister of Sindh joined them from the control room of CM House in Karachi where elected representatives and DCOs briefed the president. The president’s spokesperson, Farhatullah Babar, told the media that the president had asked how they intended to distribute wheat seed for the upcoming Rabi crop 2011-12. He said they wanted the sowing to start as soon as the water was drained. He was told it would start in a few days.

He asked about the water being drained from Badin. At the last video conferencing session, National Assembly Speaker Dr Fehmida Mirza from the district had pointed out that most of the floodwater that had drained from other areas had stagnated in Badin.

Babar said that the president had reiterated his call for a comprehensive study to be carried out to examine the feasibility of diverting floodwaters to natural catchment areas in the deserts for use in the future and to irrigate parched land.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 20^th, 2011.