KARACHI: Presiding over a meeting at the Bilawal House on irrigation, dewatering and drainage of flood-affected areas on Sunday, President Asif Ali Zardari directed the government to prepare water storage and drainage plans at the divisional level in the province.

He also called for devising a plan to divert rainwater to desert areas of the province during floods and store it for irrigation.

Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah, Water and Power Minister Syed Naveed Qamar, Petroleum Minister Dr Asim Hussain, provincial ministers Murad Ali Shah, Sharjeel Memon and Saifullah Dharejo, Secretary General to President Salman Farooqui and provincial secretaries attended the meeting.

In their briefings at the meeting, Wapda and the provincial irrigation department claimed that 80 per cent of the floodwaters had been drained out from the inundated areas and work was going on round the clock to clear the remaining areas.

Foreign consultant Louis Berger gave a presentation on a drainage plan for dealing with similar calamities in future and submitted a plan for enhancing capacity of the Left Bank Outfall Drain (LBOD).

He asked the Wapda and provincial authorities to give top priority to the work of clearing the flood-affected areas because of the upcoming Rabi crop and fast approaching winter. The president was briefed on the implementation of his earlier directives and steps taken for dewatering various localities.

The president stressed the need for a permanent drainage plan in the country which, he said, would reduce flood damage as incessant rains might recur due to climate change. He directed that after the completion of the dewatering work, a mechanism should be devised to provide wheat seed to affected areas to enable farmers to sow wheat crop because any delay would not only adversely affect farmers, but would also reduce national crop output.