Video conferencing: Govt to prepare ‘master plan’ to deal with future calamities

President assured that climate changes will be taken into account.

KARACHI:

In a video conference between flood-affected areas and Bilawal House, President Asif Ali Zardari was assured that Sindh was working on preparing for future calamities as they fear that the cycle of relentless rains may continue for a few years as a result of climate change.

Officials told the president that international experts will submit the ‘Master Plan’. The president directed the Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA) to come up with a similar master plan for Balochistan as that area has also been partially affected by the floods.

The president looked at images from the Sanghar, Mirpurkhas, Umarkot, Tando Allahyar, Tando Mohammad Khan, Matiari, Nausheroferoz, Badin and Khairpur districts and interacted with senators, MPAs, MNAs and DCOs of the areas.

Legislators, district officials and irrigation staff responsible for draining the water attended as did WAPDA officials. The meeting was told that Rs18 billion have been committed in international assistance.

The president said that he will look into these efforts personally when he visits the areas again. He was especially interested in the progress made in distributing Pakistan Cards. He was assured that that additional National Database and Registration Authority staff was working with the Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) and the government to set up more centres to process and distribute the cards.

With Eidul Azha approaching, the president asked for them to speed up the process. He called on affluent people to step forward and donate generously to help those who have lost everything in the floods.

The president directed district officials to help farmers in their areas and to make sure they have wheat seeds for the coming year’s Rabi crop. He reminded officials of an earlier order in which he had asked for a comprehensive study examining the possibility of diverting flood waters into natural drainage basins and asked that it be implemented early.

Keeping people in the loop

According to the president’s orders, the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) and its provincial component have updated their website with details of relief measures and they are open for the public to read.

Earlier, the NDMA submitted a compliance report that informed the president that it had worked out a way to procure and supply funds for flood survivors.

All data concerning details of vendors, purchase orders, goods procured along with their unit prices and quantity, payments and even cheque numbers issued against each payment have been listed on the website.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 30^th, 2011.