ISLAMABAD: Caretaker Federal Minister for Water Resources Ahmad Irfan Aslam, Tuesday, while stressing the need for a viable plan for flood management has said that the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) has already approved a PC-1 in this regard with an estimated cost of Rs194 billion.
Addressing the launching ceremony of the National Master Plan on Flood Telemetry and National Consultation on Updated National Flood Protection Plan-IV which was supported by the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the minister said that it was a must economic development, saying that water-related disasters cannot be wisely managed without forecast.
The minister said that the government of Pakistan has almost updated the fourth National Flood Protection Plan on the basis of lessons learnt from last year’s floods with the support of the ADB.
He said this is a reflection that Pakistan is beginning to commit resources towards flood management and emphasized that the government needs to divert more resources to ensure lesser disruptions in the lives and livelihoods of people due to floods.
The minister said the 2022 devastating floods triggered by monsoon rains caused $30 billion in economic and infrastructure losses to Pakistan and exposed the weaknesses in the system as realised the government to divert more resources to flood management and early warning systems for better disaster preparedness.
Aslam said globally, some $2.93 trillion was lost due to natural disasters; whereas, during the 2022 monsoon floods, Pakistan faced huge economic losses as mentioned above and these were staggering statistics.
He said, “If we are to grow as a nation, as an economy we need to have strategic flood management plans. Water-related natural disasters can be managed through informed forecast which is not possible without modern flood telemetry systems,” he added. Aslam said the flood-related departments were silently working without any recognition such as the Federal Flood Commission (FFC) which should be acknowledged and appreciated.
He also thanked the ADB for supporting the upgradation of the National Flood Protection Plan-IV as the government had initiated the endeavour based on the lessons learned during the floods of 2022. He said the exchange of knowledge and information had a long way aiming to protect more lives which would significantly contribute to the implementation of the updated plan.
Secretary of Water Resources Division Syed Ali Murtaza said that the country was highly vulnerable due to floods. However, the recurring floods had incurred huge economic losses to the country, whereas, information and prevention of floods was a key driver for the country to ensure convincing flood management strategies on the ground.
The Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD), Irrigation Departments of respective provinces, and other relevant departments realised the proactive role and devised the flood management plan. He added that it would help take endeavours that were informed and the telemetry systems were to help monitor river flows. He informed that the implementation process would include a total of 707 telemetry systems and some 457 systems would be installed in all the provinces and federating units of the country.
Country Director ADB Yong Ye, speaking on the occasion, said it was a remarkable milestone for launching the National Master Plan on Flood Telemetry and National Consultation on Updated National Flood Protection Plan-IV. He mentioned that the ADB was on the top as a close collaborator of Pakistan on flood risk management, and the collaboration between ADB and FFC was a continuation of shared commitment to Pakistan’s most pressing development challenges. The telemetry system, he said would address acute data scarcity in water flow monitoring in the rivers, whereas, new information sources and means would be identified in the future. He said the ADB was taking flood risk management as an integrated task that should consider opting for nature-based solutions by provincial departments and early warning systems proposed by the PMD and provincial departments.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2023
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