WASHINGTON, Nov 12: A four-member delegation of the Sindhi Association of North America, the World Sindhi Institute and Sindhi Excellence Team recently met representatives of the World Bank Inspection Panel in Washington and urged the bank to address issues raised by people affected by the bank-funded Left Bank Outfall Drain.

An email message issued by former Sana president Khalid Hashmani in Washington on Sunday said that the delegation discussed short, medium, and long-term "water management action plan" and suggested that the bank should include a compensation package in the action plan.

The bank officials said that the immediate and short-term actions were more specific and offered only $18 million for the Coastal Area Development Programme to be carried out under the Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund.

The delegation told the bank that the proposed medium and long-term remedy actions lacked any specific funding commitments.

The panel said that an additional funding of $3 million was allocated to undertake a study to determine the causes of poverty among the people living in the areas and carry out studies related to flood risk management.

The delegation expressed dissatisfaction over the original response of the bank which failed to fully acknowledge the bank's responsibility in the design, implementation and process failures.

The delegation also expressed disappointment over the bank's stand that it had no moral and legal responsibility to compensate the affected communities for the huge losses they had suffered because of the LBOD.

The delegation asked for other avenues where they could seek remedial actions against consultants, designers and Wapda engineers who shared the responsibility for the LBOD failures.

The bank only agreed to a "rapid assessment of existing local government flood risk management systems".

The goal of the study is to identify gaps in the current flood risk management systems and to formulate a programme to fill the gaps with plans, systems, facilities and equipment.

The focus will be on flood forecasting and warning systems, flood preparedness and response plans and on strengthening of the right bank of the LBOD spinal and KPOD - the management response acknowledges breaches in the right embankment of the spinal drain and the KPOD occurred during the storm of 2003.

The bank, in collaboration with Wapda and Sida, will undertake a detailed field examination to identify vulnerable sections.

Based on the findings, measures will be taken and improvements will be made to repair old breaches and eliminate any identified weaknesses.