ISLAMABAD: The Senate’s Functional Committee on Problems of Less Developed Areas was told on Tuesday that the Federal Flood Commission (FFC) needed more funds and manpower to meet the requirements of modern times.

Briefing a committee meeting, FFC Chairman Asjad Imtiaz Ali said that since flood was becoming a regular event in the country, preventive measures were needed to mitigate its impact.

“We should have around 3,000 small dams in Balochistan alone as dams and barrages help reduce damage caused by floods,” he said.

He said that the FFC’s role was confined to preparation of national flood protection plans which were implemented by relevant federal and provincial departments.

The meeting was told about the need for improving flood forecasting and warning system.

Officials of the water and power ministry said that around 150 small dams were being built in Balochistan and work on installation of weather radars and water gauges had been started in Punjab.

Chairman of the committee Mohammad Usman Kakar criticised the policy makers and said that priority should be given to the northern areas because floods generated from the mountains in the region. Installing flood warning systems in Punjab and Sindh would be less fruitful, he added. Besides, he alleged, floods in Sindh were usually caused by misdeeds of influential people like breaching embankments of the Indus to save the land of certain landlords in 2010.

He asked the FFC officials about reasons behind regular flash floods in the Chitral area. “Is it due to melting of glaciers and snow or any other reason?”

The FFC chairman replied that some powerful landlords had built illegal dams along the banks of the River Chitral which had reduced the width of the river and led to overflow in case of rains.

“The changing course of the river flow creates flash floods during rains and melting of glaciers increases the massive flow,” he added.

The committee directed the ministry to send a team to Chitral to conduct a survey in this regard so that encroachments along the river banks could be removed.

Published in Dawn, July 27th, 2016