ISLAMABAD: The Flood Inquiry Commission set up on the orders of the Supreme Court said in its report released here on Monday that Tori Bund near Jacobabad (Sindh) suffered years of neglect and lack of maintenance which eroded its height to a dangerous level long before last year’s flood season.
The four-man flood inquiry commission headed by Muhammad Azam Khan was tasked to look into an allegation of unauthorised breach made in the Tori dyke to divert flood waters to Balochistan to save the Shahbaz Airbase in Jacobabad and breaches in embankments of barrages and canals during 2010 floods which played havoc across the country.
The commission said that the last-minute misdirected attempt to remove earth from its crest to fill deep pits on the riverside of the bund in wee hours of August 6/7, further reduced its height. This was a gross violation of specified guidelines and the public saw it as deliberate attempt to cause a breach.
It held the Chief Engineer, Guddu, camped at Tori Rest House, and his team, especially the XEN in-charge, responsible for consequential losses in Sindh and Balochistan.
The report took up the issue of availability of the Jacobabad airport for flood relief operations and confirmed presence there of a sizeable number of foreign personnel for some time, which created a perception of its inaccessibility for relief goods. But the foreign nationals were reportedly employed to train and assist PAF staff for upgrading facilities, before arrival of a new batch of F-16 planes, the report noted.
Most embankments in the country, the report deplored, were not maintained, as required and specified in SOPs (standard operating procedures). Most breaches indicated serious organisational and managerial issues impinging upon professionals’ apathy, besides being an indicator of widespread corrupt practices in the hierarchy.
The 2010 floods, the report said, fully exposed illegal encroachments which had been allowed to go unchecked by the authorities concerned due to negligence, corruption and poor management resulting in massive losses to life and property.
Unfortunately, the report said, the local and provincial governments themselves indulged in encouraging illegal acts promoting encroachments.
All such encroachments contributed to obstructions in the flow of water resulting in flooding of many areas. A matter of grave concern which came to the notice of the commission was that some of the governments were selling acquired lands in pond areas to raise revenues when under the law no construction of any infrastructure was allowed to be erected within a distance of 200 feet from banks of the rivers/streams. Referring to the proposed Munda Dam project, 6 km upstream of Munda Headworks, the report said, had the dam been constructed, there would have been minimal damage downstream in Charsadda, Peshawar and Nowshera districts and Munda Headworks.
The commission was informed during proceedings by representatives of Kyhber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) that a major reason for inundation of agricultural land and abadis on the northern side of Peshawar-Islamabad Motorway (M1) was the inadequate capacity of crossing bridges meant for the drainage of flood flows in rivers located between Peshawar and Mardan. The motorway virtually acted like a “bund” obstructing the natural course of water flows in the area. The bed of river Kabul, upstream and downstream of the main Kabul river bridge, has silted up to an alarming level that has decreased the waterway and poses a serious threat of out-flanking and over-topping of this vitally important structure during floods.
On early flood warning system, the report deplored that the current facilities are of a limited nature because the meteorology department has a forecast system of barely 3 or 4 days. Due to limited technical capacity, Pakistan is lagging far behind developed countries as there are only seven radars in the entire country. There is no coverage in the northwest of the country and Balochistan and the coastal belt of 960 km.
Although Pakistan is a member of the World Meteorology Organisation, it is not accessing information from it. Nor is it taking full advantage of information available with it. The Supreme Court may wish to advise the government to expand radar coverage to the whole country and establish a coordinating mechanism with WMO and the Saarc countries for accessing/sharing information on early weather warning.
The report noted that despite glaring cases of inadequate attention in many areas, the magnitude and scale of the disaster and the speed with which it unfolded in the first phase during July 27 to August 12, the overall rescue and relief operations at all levels and public responses constituted an impressive chapter of managerial history.
Both civil and military establishments mobilised whatever they could; the NGOs extended full cooperation to affected people. The administration in KP and the Punjab remained most visibly active.
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