FAISALABAD:Divisional Commissioner Silwat Saeed has directed deputy commissioners of Faisalabad division to finalize their flood fighting plans on urgent basis so that any emergency during coming monsoon and rainy season could be dealt effectively.

Chairing a meeting here on Monday, she took briefing about flood fighting strategy and reviewed the pre-flood arrangements.

She directed the irrigation department, water & sanitation agency, Rescue 1122, livestock, health, civil defense, highways, buildings and other departments to maintain close liaison among them so that people could be provided maximum relief during flood emergencies.

She directed deputy commissioners of Faisalabad, Jhang, Chiniot and Toba Tek Singh districts to inspect overhead bridges and other preventives measures taken on rivers in their respective jurisdiction and ensure immediate removal of encroachments of all types from sensitive areas.

She also directed to arrange mock exercise of all departments to evaluate their performance and response time in case of any flood emergency.

She expressed dismay over poor arrangements made by WASA in Faisalabad for dealing with flood emergency in urban areas and directed its officers to ensure activation of entire machinery, disposal channels and de-silting and de-watering gadgets.

She also directed to keep control room of WASA functional round the clock and said that duty roster of deployed staff along with details of their duty timings should be shared with her so that she could evaluate performance of WASA staff amicably.

She also directed livestock department to made necessary arraignments for immediate shifting of cattle from flood stricken areas in case of any flood emergency and said that a control room would be made functional very soon at district headquarter of each district to monitor flood relating arrangements.

This control room would use a universal number for contact with people whereas its staff would take prompt action after receiving complaints about flood emergency.

She also directed the livestock department to activate its Rapid Response Teams as the meteorological department has already predicted rains on the Eid-ul-Azha. Therefore, leaves in all relevant departments would be cancelled and their entire staff should remain on high alert to deal with any flood relating emergency, she added.