Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Flash floods devastation in the areas located close to river side and deluge in the streams and nullahs triggered by torrential rains have exposed government tall claims for taking pre-emptive measures to control floods. The plain areas are inundated in flooding water every year for want of preventive measures on the part of government and leading big cities, shopping centre, trade hubs, small cities and towns start wearing looks of Venice city. Flood water continue to stand in the streets for countless days owing to lack of proper arrangements for its drainage and failure of sewerage system. The monsoon season creates flood like situation every year in plain areas rendering million of people homeless and causing damage of billion of rupees to property. Scores of people lost their lives in the recent flash floods while standing crops in the areas located on river banks were destroyed. One fifth of Pakistan was submerged due to high flood in river Indus in 2010 and 12 million people were affected. According to an estimate 715000 people are affected every year by the floods which have caused loss about 1 per cent of GDP equal to 2.7 billion US dollars. According to World Resources Institute it is feared that about 2.7 million people will be affected by floods every year till 2030. Lack of proper arrangements on the part of government is stated to be major reason behind this colossal loss. Sources said state of the art flood alert systems are installed on the existing dams and barrages in the country and the life span of every flood alert system is 10 years. The latest modern flood alert system was installed in Chashma in 2004 and later no heed was paid towards this project.