ISLAMABAD: Shortcomings in flood management and infrastructure weaknesses which caused large-scale devastations during the floods of 2010 and 2014 are still to be addressed and most of the people responsible for the catastrophe have been cleared. As a result, there are fears that similar situations may emerge during the current flood season, causing more severe losses in life and property.

This was the main issue taken up in an inter-provincial meeting on flood preparedness held here on Tuesday. It was presided over by Water and Power Minister Khawaja Mohammad Asif and was attended by Chairperson of Benazir Income Support Programme Marvi Memon, federal secretary of water and power, provincial irrigation secretaries and heads of Meteorological Office, National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), Indus River System Authority (Irsa), Wapda, National Engineering Services of Pakistan and National Highway Authority.

On the basis of reports submitted by provincial irrigation secretaries, the meeting noted that most of the 61 critical weaknesses of the flood protection programme had not been addressed and a severe flood could cause more losses to the life and property than the country suffered in 2010.

Meeting notes that most of 61 critical weaknesses of flood protection programme have not been addressed

It was reported that the Sindh government had failed to take remedial measures and flood protection steps to avert a recurrence of human losses. The situation in Balochistan is no different.

It was noted that only the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government had taken significant remedial and corrective measures and was ahead of other provincial governments. The performance of the government of Punjab, the meeting noted, was the story of the glass being half full and half empty.

The meeting was convened in accordance with a directive of the Supreme Court seized with a petition of Marvi Memon seeking intervention to address 61 critical weaknesses of the flood protection programme.

Ms Memon said at the meeting that she would submit a report to the apex court on the failure to take the flood protection measures and the matter would then be between the court and the authorities concerned.

The meeting decided to write letters to the provincial governments, particularly to the Sindh chief secretary, pointing out their failure and urge them to act on an emergency basis.

It was required that flood protection bunds damaged in 2010 because of private properties created along the river banks and temporary groundwork in katcha areas would be removed and influential people would be forced to leave the areas to ensure natural river flows.

When asked what action had been taken against people having encroached upon river banks, Sindh Irrigation Secretary Zaheer Haider Shah said no action had so far been taken and nobody punished. He said the province had in fact ignored the Sindh River Act for removing private groundwork along river banks and taking action against guilty elements.

It was also reported that in 2010 Sindh irrigation secretary Shuja Juneju had stated before the floods that embankments and flood protection dykes were strong enough to withstand high intensity floods and there was no threat to public property. However, after the devastation caused by the collapse of Tori Bund show-cause notices were issued to Mr Juneju and dozens of irrigation officials.

Answering a question, Mr Zaheer Shah said the provincial government had set up an inquiry commission which cleared all the irrigation officials, including the then irrigation secretary, and held that natural calamities could not be termed manmade disasters.

On another question, it was reported that no action had been taken against officials responsible for the damage in Punjab.

Planning Commission’s water chief Nasir Gilani proposed that a link canal should be constructed so that surplus water in the Indus could be diverted to the dry zone of Sutlej and the adjoining desert to minimise the impact of heavy floods in Sindh.

But Ms Memon said the meeting was not meant to consider any controversial project and the focus should remain on strengthening the existing infrastructure and flood protection bunds that had been ignored since 2010.

Answering a question, chief of Meteorological Office Hazrat Mir said that reports of flood forecasting system and weather forecasting system had been accurate now and had mostly been accurate in the past. But this was contested by Additional Secretary of Water and Power Mehr Ali Shah who said that the Met office did not have a system to predict accurately beyond eight hours.

Responding to a question, a representative of the Indus Water Commissioner said that India regularly provided data relating floods in Chenab.

The NDMA chairman and Met Office, however, said they were unaware of any such data provided by India.

Published in Dawn, July 15th, 2015

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