KARACHI, Aug 2: The Karachi Coordination Committee of the Pakistan Peoples Party, which met at Bilawal House on Saturday, expressed concern over what it called serious threat of floods, which was expected to hit the already ravaged province of Sindh during the next fortnight.
The meeting was presided over by Mr Syed Qaim Ali Shah and was attended by Mr Nisar Khuhro, Senator Raza Rabbani, Mr Aftab Shaban Mirani, Senator Safdar Abbasi, Rashid Rabbani, Prof ND Khan, Taj Haider and presidents of all the divisions.
The meeting demanded that instead of waiting for the disaster to hit the province, as was done the last fortnight, an emergency operation, mobilizing the entire resources of the state be started now.
The PPP maintained that the government should start shifting the people, living in danger zones, to safer places, which should be stocked, in advance, with ration, medicines and other needed items, besides strengthening the weak embankments to avoid any breaches. Standing water should also be drained out and the outflow channels cleared to take the incoming water to the sea quickly, it demanded.
The PPP committee apprehended that Sindh was being drowned to punish its people for resisting Thal Canal.
According to a press release of the PPP, the KCC noted that drainage system in Sindh from a village to the LBOD had collapsed and stagnant water was standing everywhere.
There had been constant torrential rains for the last one-week in the catchment areas of northern Pakistan and the plains of Punjab. All the rivers had already been flowing in medium to high flood. The reservoirs of Mangla and Tarbela were overflowing.
A new system of rains is expected to hit Sindh in the next four or five days, when waters flowing in from Punjab would also reach Sindh. One does not know as to when India, which was already lashed with heavy rains and high floods, would release flood water from the Bhakra Nangal reservoir, which would cause high floods in Ravi and Sutlej rivers as well.
It was noted in the meeting that many weak spots had already been detected in the embankments of Indus and it was feared that some of these might be intentionally breached to divert flows and save the lands of the “favourites.”
The meeting also pointed out that even though the federal minister of water and power had publicly said two months back that the snowfall had been eight to ten feet above average, and abnormally high flows were being received in Tarbela and Mangla, but the government had opted for denying water to Sindh for early Kharif and filling up the reservoirs, instead of emptying the reservoirs in early Kharif and storing high floods at this point of time.
