Chairman Federal Flood Commission (FFC) Ahmed Kamal Thursday emphasized the need to increase forestry and construction of dams in the country as both are the best source to resist flood water and impact of droughts.
“Trees help to reduce flooding by directly intercepting rainfall and promoting higher soil infiltration rates,” he said while talking to a private news channel.
He further explained trees reduce flood risk from the top to bottom, adding, lots of raindrops that land on leaves evaporate straight into the air so less water reaches the ground.
He said we also need to develop rainwater harvesting systems at different sites in urban areas to not only conserve water but also manage it to reduce the risk of flooding. He said we also need to enhance our national water storage that currently stands for 30 days only. Ahmed Kamal said small dams are important as well as large dams to meet the water needs of growing population. Replying to a question, he said as per current information from the met department, light rain is expected in most parts of the country.
The inflow of water in the Tarbela dam has reached to 200,000 cusecs, whereas the Marala Headworks on Chenab River has reached to 60,000 cusecs and Kabul River at Nowshera to more than 30,000 cusecs, he added. Such huge water flow resulted in causing damage to people’s homes.
The met department is closely monitoring for any new rain spell in the future. It was due to the timely forecasts of met department that we could control this devastating situation to some extent. Otherwise, damages could have been worse.
