Monsoon season is on in Pakistan. 11 people killed in Rawalpindi due to heavy downpour while the Federal Flood Commission said River Chenab was in low flood in the Khanki-Qadirabad reach, whereas River Kabul was in medium flood in the Warsak-Nowshera reach. River Swat was also in low flood at Charsadda Road Bridge. Rivers Indus, Jhelum, Ravi and Sutlej were flowing normally.Tarbela and Mangla reservoirs were at elevations of 1511.00 ft and 1230.60 ft, respectively, which were 39.00 ft and 11.40 ft below their respective maximum conservation levels of 1550.00 ft and 1242.00 ft.On Saturday, India was reported to have released water into the Chenab and Ravi rivers with 17 villages in the Gujranwala district now under flood warning. The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) has already issued a flood warning for urban areas while the Punjab PDMA has issued a high alert for the Sialkot-Narowal region. The trouble again is that there is no mechanism in place to deliver the relevant warnings in advance to people in the flood zones. Pakistani people can only hope that this time things will be different, but, in any case, people must prepare for any eventuality. Given the delays in finalising the fourth National Flood Protection Plan, it can be easily surmised that we are far from prepared. Key to our lack of preparation is the fact that no single government department is tasked with the responsibility of developing a response to flood alerts. In response to a Supreme Court directive, the government has decided to set up a committee consisting of more than a dozen departments, but it is still not clear how the committee will help to coordinate in the midst of a rapidly unfolding situation. Numerous attempts have been made in the past to set up committees and other bodies to develop a flood-response strategy, but sadly, hardly anybody takes these responsibilities seriously until the inundating waters are upon people.The annual reports put out by the Federal Flood Commission make for depressing reading, primarily because they all read the same year after year, indicating they are more an exercise in formality than anything else.The problem is that these numbers and proposals are yet to have made it to the ground where people are still at risk of another terrible flood. The warning signs are already there with three districts facing serious floods before the monsoon season has kicked in. Even some of the stations in the prime minister’s pet project, the Rawalpindi-Islamabad Metro, were submerged under water after a day of rain. This year there is ample warning, coupled with years of experience, for Pakistan to ensure that should conditions leading to floods materialise, the response should not be hastily cobbled together.
pk.shafaqna.com
