Pakistan: Sindh to convene conference next month for reconstruction of infrastructure
Floodwaters from over 70% of inundated areas have been cleared, Cabinet told
Karachi: The Sindh government is convening an international conference next month to invite proposals from national and global experts to reconstruct the drainage and irrigation system after massive flood devastation so that it could withstand such natural calamities.
The decision to this effect was reached at the meeting of Sindh Cabinet, which considered in detail the post-flood situation in the province.
Xhairing the meeting, Sindh Chief Minister, Syed Murad Ali Shah, acknowledged that the existing irrigation and drainage system connected with the Indus River had failed to protect a number of towns in the province after heavy monsoon rains earlier in the year.
He said that his government required advice from international experts, including from the World Bank, to ensure reconstruction of the damaged infrastructure in the province as per the latest global standards to effectively tackle future climate emergencies.
Sindh Irrigation Minister, Jam Khan Shoro, briefed the cabinet meeting that a total of 22 million acre feet of floodwaters had caused massive devastation on both the right and left banks of the Indus River in the province.
He said that accumulated floodwaters in the province had been four times the storage capacity of Tarbela Dam that is one of major water reservoirs in the country.
He briefed the Cabinet that the floodwaters had caused damage to 5,335 spots on the drainage and irrigation systems of the province.
He said that total cultivable land available in the province was 1,282 million acres but the existing drainage system could drain out additional irrigation water merely from five million acres of farmlands.
A special pumping mechanism had been deployed for emergency drainage of floodwaters from left and right banks of the Indus River.
The floodwaters from over 70 per cent of the inundated areas have been cleared as efforts are on to complete the drainage operation by December this year.