Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah presiding over a meeting of rain emergency has ordered cancellation of leavers of all the employees of district administration, police, local bodies and other essential staff and directed the chief secretary to set up a Rain-Emergency Cell at his office for necessary coordination.
He took these decisions while presiding over a monsoon preparatory meeting here at CM House.
The meeting was attended by provincial ministers, Syed Nasir Shah, Faraz Dero, Advisor Law Murtaza Wahab, Chief Secretary Mumtaz Shah, IG Police Mushtaq Maher, SMBR Alamuddin Bullo, Secretary Finance Hassan Naqvi, Administrator KMC Laiq Ahmed, MD water Board Asadullah Khan, and MD SSWMA Zubair Channa and other concerned.
DG PDMA Salman Shah told the meeting that Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) issued Outlook for Monsoon 2021 (July to September) under which rainfall was expected to remain near to normal during July to September 2021.
He said that area weighted normal rainfall of Pakistan during July to September was 140.8 mm.
The impact of the flash flooding in hill torrents of Sindh cannot be ruled out, the meeting was told.
Due to extreme hydro-meteorological events over catchments, riverine floods may occur.
It was pointed out that above normal temperatures in high altitudes were likely to increase the rate of snowmelt in the Northern Areas, subsequently increasing the chances of base flow in the Upper Indus basin.
The Met Office informed that Monsoon currents continue to penetrate into Eastern Sindh. Under its influence Rain/Wind/Thunder-storms with a few moderate to heavy falls at times are likely to occur in all districts of lower Sindh till 16th July and central &Upper Sindh till 17th July 2021.
The persistent rain/showers may create water logging in low lying areas of Karachi, Hyderabad, Badin, Thatta, Sukkar, Larkana, Dadu and Nawabshah districts during the period.
Minister Rehabilitation Faraz Dero told the chief minister that the PDMA had started pre-monsoon preparations in February 2021 by forwarding `Monsoon Contingency Planning’ guidelines.
He said that the provincial Emergency Operations Centre (PEOC) has been operationalised 24/7 to monitor the situation.
He added that the Relief / Rescue stock has been prepositioned at Sukkur, Jamshoro and Karachi warehouses.
A sufficient number of dewatering pumps have been placed at the disposal of District Disaster Management Authorities.
