Pakistan needs to build up systems to store and harvest rainwater at different urban sites for effective conservation of water and to diminish the risk of flooding. Federal Flood Commission (FFC) Chairman Ahmed Kamal told WealthPK on Thursday that it was high time the country expanded forestry and build more dams, the established sources to control floods and minimise the brunt of droughts.

Explaining his points, the FFC chairman told WealthPK that trees cut floods by minimising the chances of torrential rains and promoting higher soil infiltration rates.

“Look, trees bring down floods level from the top to bottom as most of the raindrops falling on leaves evaporate straight into the air,” he said.

“The end result is: less water reaches the ground.”

Mr. Kamal said Pakistan should start working on its national water storage that currently stands for 30 days only, and this can be done by constructing small dams as well as large dams as both are important to meet the water needs of a growing population. WealthPK learned from the Met department that light rain is expected in most parts of the country.

The data on water storage, seen by WealthPK, shows that the inflow of water in the Tarbela dam has hit 200,000 cusecs, the Marala Headworks on the Chenab River 60,000 cusecs and the Kabul River at Nowshera more than 30,000 cusecs.

“Such huge water flow caused damage to people’s homes,” said Mr. Kamal, adding that weather officials are monitoring the situation. He praised the Met department for its timely forecasts that helped the commission tackle the devastating flooding to some extent.

Credit : Independent News Pakistan-WealthPk