REFERENCE Ikram Junaidi’s report on disaster management (Sept 12).

In 2009, I started marketing a foreign equipment which can fill up to 1,600 sand bags per hour.

This equipment is widely used by emergency management agencies in foreign countries for water control, plugging of breaches, strengthening of dykes, erection of barricades/protective barriers around important installations like airports, refineries and power houses, etc., and controlling the spread of water overflowing river banks.

The letters of introduction along with technical literature were sent to all provincial chief ministers, inspectors general police, directors general disaster management, secretaries irrigation and chairman of the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA).

The first and only letter of acknowledgement came from Balochistan Chief Minister Secretariat.

They also advised me to contact their management.

I did that and thereafter our contact with PDMA remained confined to telephone calls, with no tangible results.

In Sindh, some action was taken by irrigation secretary who referred the case to their technical staff.

The latter recommended purchasing the equipment.

In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, I twice had the opportunity of meeting the irrigation chief engineer. The only impression that I carried back with me was their total lack of interest.

Only once did I receive a letter from the DCO Charsada asking for the price of the equipment. I promptly replied to his letter but there has been no response.

The province where my efforts did not receive even the least consideration is Punjab.

After evaluating the technical leaflets of the equipment in Sept 2012, the NDMA wrote letters to all the Directors General Provincial Disaster Management, highlighting the merits of the equipment.

In order to meet the officials concerned personally, I travelled to Karachi and Lahore and I met them but nowhere did I notice genuine concern for the matter.

Fida Muhammad

Islamabad

Published in Dawn, October 17th, 2014