ISLAMABAD, June 30: With monsoon setting in a bit earlier than expected this year, the provincial and regional authorities appear to have learnt little from last year's floods as none of them has completed the mid-term restoration and rehabilitation works amid forecast of 10 per cent higher than normal rainfall in the northern half of the country.

The federal government is worried and it has warned the provincial and regional governments and other agencies concerned of stern action if the remaining restoration works are not completed by July 15.

Sources told Dawn that an inter-provincial meeting presided over by Water and Power Minister Syed Naveed Qamar was informed on Thursday that the restoration works were far from satisfactory.

Ironically, the provinces and regions that were affected particularly severely last year are the ones that have failed to make much progress in the restoration works this year.

Sindh --- where thousands of people affected by last year's floods are yet to be rehabilitated fully --- has completed only 62 per cent of the works so far.

Gilgit-Baltistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, which were the early victims of the floods last year, have so far completed only 60 per cent and 65 per cent of the works, respectively.

Punjab, with 85 per cent of the works completed, has fared better. Balochistan has completed 80 per cent of the works, according to the sources.

The worst performer is Azad Kashmir which has hardly made any progress in the works. The Azad Jammu and Kashmir government had formulated restoration schemes of Rs28 million, but the PC-1 of the plans were approved on June 14.

With funds yet to be released, hardly any physical progress has been made there.

“If that is the situation, Allah be with us,” the sources quoted the minister as saying.

Mr Qamar then told the meeting that strict action would be taken if the works were not completed by July 15. He added that he would himself visit all the provinces to review and monitor the status of the restoration works.

A senior official, however, told the meeting that monsoon had already set in, much earlier than the normal teeing off time of mid-July.

The director-general of Pakistan Meteorological Department said that this year the overall rainfall for the country was expected to be 10 per cent less than normal. But in the northern parts of the country, including Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Kashmir and Punjab, the rainfall would be 10 per cent higher than normal.

He said that easterly and westerly systems in the second half of July “may result in heavy downpour, causing localised and urban flash flooding”.

The meeting also noted that the additional water storage capacity achieved through a 40-foot increase in the height of Mangla dam would not be of much use this year. The meeting, therefore, directed the Indus River System Authority to fill Mangla dam to 1,210 feet of pre-Mangla raising storage level.

The sources said the minister, who recently returned from a visit to the areas in Sindh that had been affected severely last year, became annoyed when he was told that construction works on Rori Bund were “very slow and the quality of stone pitch too poor”.

Mr Qamar said if the quality and pace of the works were not improved soon the contractors would be removed and proceeded against.