ISLAMABAD: Ahead of the looming flood season, the government has issued a stark warning that the flood protection activities by the federal and provincial stakeholders are insufficient and are falling short of the targets committed.

A meeting of the Federal Flood Commission (FFC) has been called on May 17 to push the provincial governments and other agencies concerned to complete before the flood season all the activities required for the protection of lives and properties from flood devastation, as ordered by the Supreme Court of Pakistan.

A report released by the government on Friday said that the provincial irrigation departments and federal line agencies, such as the FATA Directorate, Gilgit-Baltistan Public Works Department and irrigation and small dams organisations of Azad Kashmir, were required to remove before the start of Monsoon season 2016 all encroachments from flood protection infrastructure, flood plains and waterways. All stakeholders were required to submit reports on the action being taken for the removal of encroachments by December 15, 2015.

The federal government reported that only 516 out of the 3,581 encroachments had been removed while the governments of Sindh and GB and FATA secretariat had not bothered to report any progress. The government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, one of the worst-affected provinces in the 2010 and 2015 floods, reported that all encroachments had been removed while Balochistan removed 247 such obstacles in waterways and flood protection infrastructure. The AJK government reported that no significant encroachments existed along major rivers in its territory.

The provincial irrigation departments (PIDs), federal agencies concerned and city district governments of major cities were also required to submit to Suparco lists of encroachments removed or in the process of removal from the flood protection infrastructure and waterways so that these could be verified through satellite imaging.

The official report said the Balochistan Irrigation department was the only exception, having fully complied with its commitment. Punjab also submitted a report to Suparco but the latter requested some additional information which is still awaited. The irrigation departments of KP and Sindh and Fata directorate and GB have not yet submitted their lists even after a lapse of almost five months.

The report said Wapda was required to expedite the repair of damaged or non-operational flood telemetric stations and other flood forecasting and warning systems on a war footing. It was subsequently decided that Wapda will take up the matter with the water and power ministry for provision of funds. An update is still awaited.

Pakistan Met Department’s Flood Forecasting Division was required to organise consultative sessions with all the federal and provincial agencies relating to flood protection, engineering and disaster management and chalk out a comprehensive plan for upgrading and expanding the existing radar network and flood forecasting and warning systems for the whole country and submit a report in December 2015.

The consultative meeting did take place in December 2015 but the plan for the radar network and flood forecasting and warning system based on actual requirements of the provinces and other regional governments have still not been submitted.

The KP government too did not honour its commitment to submit by December 2015 a comprehensive plan for promoting reforestation, controlling deforestation in catchment areas on all rivers and nullahs in KP to check excessive bed erosion and landsliding that was important for minimising the flow of debris in flash floods.

The report said that the National Highway Authority (NHA) was required to identify areas of possible flooding as a result of obstruction caused by NHA roads and file an update with the Federal Flood Commission latest by December 2015. The NHA reported that 57 problematic sites were identified. On 35 sites, substantial physical work had been done while 20 remaining sites were in the design stage and would be completed in two to three years. The FFC said the NHA had not filed an update and a final reminder was issued on Friday (May 13).

Published in Dawn, May 14th, 2016