Commissioners, DCOs to submit flood-combat plans

LAHORE, April 17: Learning from the catastrophic flood hitting over a dozen districts of the province last year, the Punjab government has directed Relief and Rehabilitation wing of the Board of Revenue to evolve a strategy to combat the natural disaster that may occur during the upcoming monsoon season. According to official sources, Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif has unequivocally told the departments concerned during a recent meeting that no negligence would be tolerate in handling the flood related situation if it occurred again in the province this year. The sources said the chief minister also directed the provincial administration to revise all previous flood-fighting plans in the light of last year's experience by involving all stakeholders, public and private, employing participatory approach. Following the instructions, the BoR has directed all district coordination officers (DCOs) and commissioners in the province to prepare revised flood-fighting plans in their respective jurisdictions ahead of monsoon season. "We have sought such plans or strategies from all the districts and divisions, directing the officials concerned to submit these at their earliest," BoR senior member and Punjab Relief Commissioner Akhlaq Ahmad Tarrar told this reporter. He said the Punjab government had directed the relief and rehabilitation department to go through all previous flood-fighting plans and make certain amendments to these, if required. Mr Tarrar said the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) had also sent some flood crisis experts to the provincial capital who had conducted a capacity-building workshop for dozens of officers concerned some days back. "We are quite optimistic about effectively dealing with such a situation if it arises in future," he added. He said the BoR had also advised the DCOs to take this matter as most urgent and utilise their best skills and abilities to finalise action plans in this connection. Last year's flood was Pakistan's worst disaster that hit nine Punjab districts — Muzaffargarh, Ranajpur, DG Khan, Layyah, Rahim Yar Khan, Bhakkar, Mianwali, Sargodha and Jhang. The flood also affected the districts of Khanewal, Vehari, Sahiwal and Multan but with low-intensity. According to Punjab Flood Damage Report (FDR) compiled by Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA), the 2010 flood caused 110 causalities in the province, besides affecting around 850,000 families in 1,780 villages/mauzas of 11 districts. It hit 5.23 million acres, damaging 2,070 schools and causing Rs83.73 billion financial loss to agriculture sector in Punjab alone. The report said the flood adversely hit as many as 6.65 million animals, 663 poultry farms and scores of fish farms in nine districts of the province. Because of the losses cause by the flood, the Punjab government had to cut its development and non-development expenditures, suspending various development activities. It also held a donor conference in Islamabad to seek funds from national and international agencies.