KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has said that Guddu Barrage is the cumulative point of passing flood water from all the rivers of Pakistan and outfalls into Arabian sea.

The River Indus poses great threat to entire length throughout the province as it runs on the ridge that is why strengthening of protective bunds and repair of vulnerable points are on his top priority.

This he said while presiding over a meeting regarding pre-monsoon flood preparation and disaster risk management at the CM House, said a statement issued here on Monday.

The meeting was attended by the Principal Secretary to CM Sohail Rajput, Special Secretary (Tec) Irrigation Junaid Memon, chief engineers Aijaz Shaikh, Irshad Memon, Bahi Khan Lakho, MD SIDA Mohammad Khan Lakho and XEN Shahbaz Akhtar.

Special Secretary Irrigation Junaid Memon briefing the chief minister said that flood season normally starts from second week of July and continues till September.

Monsoon start from July 10 and early monsoon has started with light rains in the upcountry hence low flood is expected.

Giving synoptic situation Juanid quoted weekly weather outlook for Rivers catchments from June 15 to 21 issued by Met office.

Scattered dust thunderstorm/ rain of moderate intensity are expected over the upper catchments of all the major rivers from June 19, 2017.

Adding that there would neither be very heavy rains nor flood situation in rivers.

He quoted another outlook for summer monsoon (JAS) 2017 and said consequent upon prevailing ocean and atmospheric conditions summer monsoon is expected to be normal in the first half and below normal in the second half of the season in Pakistan.

He said that based on statistical and dynamical downstream of global circulation models, there would be area weighted rainfall during monsoon season over Pakistan and is expected to fall short of long term average. However, rainfall would be highly variable over temporal and spatial scale.

It may be noted that there are certain stages of flood in the province. At Guddu, Sukkur and Kotri barrages flow of upto 200,000 cusecs is considered to be as normal while flow of 2 to 2.5 lac cusecs istermed as low flood. Flow of over 3.5 to 5 lac cusecs is considered as medium flood while high flood is measured at 5 to 7 lac cusecs flows. & to 9 lac cusecs is very high while above 9 lac cusecs is termed as superflood. Presently it is less than normal situation at all barrages.

The chief minister Syed Murad Ali Shah directed the Irrigation department to make Abkalyani arrangements such as clearance of jungles, levelling, soaking and repair of bunds, identification of borrow pit areas, identification and treatment of leaks, filling of ditches, establishment of flood warning centers, deployment of earth moving machinery, construction of katcha landhies, procurement of abkalyani materials andpatrolling on the bands.

The chief minister directed the irrigation department to provide him a list of the officers assigned on the emergency duty Flood Emergency Centers and of the officials on patrolling alongwith their cell numbers so that he could remain in contact with them.

The chief minister directed his principal secretary Sohail Rajput to issue necessary directives to divisional commissioners to take precautionary measures before start of the monsoon seaon.

Copyright APP (Associated Press of Pakistan), 2017

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