PESHAWAR:Chief Secretary Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Nadeem Aslam Chaudhry has underlined the need for the preparation of a contingency plan for the rainy season.
He expressed this while chairing a high-level meeting to review preparations for monsoon rains here on Friday.
Additional Chief Secretary, Secretaries Irrigation, Relief, C&W along with representatives of Army, Rescue 1122, PDMA attended the meeting. While all commissioners and deputy commissioners participated virtually.
The meeting was informed that the Provincial Development Working Party meeting accorded approval to important projects meant for combating floods. It was told that ongoing work on restoration of Bahrain Bazar Road in Swat would be completed by the end of this week.
The Chief Secretary asked district administration and line departments to make augmented efforts to minimize possible damages due to rains, windstorms and flash floods.
Despite financial challenges faced by the province, he stated that funds required to bolster preparation for upcoming monsoon would be ensured on priority basis. He directed fast-track repair of breaches in protective embankments in Nowshera at the earliest.
The Chief Secretary further directed that steps should be taken to facilitate tourists as huge numbers are anticipated to throng tourist destinations and adequate arrangements should be made for them in case roads are cut off due to flash floods.
The chief secretary said sandbags, life jackets, boats, dewatering pumps and other necessary equipment and machinery should be made available. He stressed on precautionary measures in flood-prone districts especially Chitral, Swat, DI Khan, Tank, Charsadda, and Nowshera. and asked the administration of flood-prone districts to maintain sufficient stock of food items, petrol and essential medicines.
The Chief Secretary ordered deputy commissioners to implement the relief department’s monsoon plan and urban flooding plan. Timely measures needed to minimize the damages that follow natural calamities, he concluded.