Pakistan and the Netherlands on Wednesday explored integrated flood resilience strategies to enhancing the former’s climate resilience, early warning systems, water management, and spatial flood plain planning.
The possibilities for a long-term collaborative partnership to the effect were discussed during a meeting between Federal Minister for Climate Change and Environmental Coordination Senator Sherry Rehman and a delegation of the experts of the Dutch Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) Team here at the Climate Ministry. The DPR delegation was led by Ambassador of the Netherlands Henny de Vries, a news release said.
Sherry Rehman expressed her appreciation for the valuable findings of the DRR Team, which conducted a comprehensive assessment following the devastating floods in 2022 on the request of the Ministry of Climate Change and Environmental Coordination (MoCC&EC) to provide technical assistance in flood and water management.
Recognizing the Netherlands as a country with extensive experience and expertise in water management, the minister highlighted that their support could greatly aid Pakistan in adopting an integrated approach towards pre-modelling, forecasting, and the establishment of preventative infrastructure.
She said,” Pakistan needs a multi-layered flood safety strategy, combining both soft and hard solutions, as we cannot engineer our way out of it. The approach can involve various aspects, including flood prevention through conventional hard defences such as dikes.—APP
