Sindh, KP CMs express reservations on water, power, gas projects

ISLAMABAD: The chief ministers of Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on Tuesday met Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif ahead of the Council of Common Interests (CCI) meeting during which they expressed their reservations on water, power and gas projects.

The chief ministers met the prime minister separately in his chamber at the Prime Minister's Office (PMO). Chairing the meeting, Nawaz directed completion of all projects in the country within approved costs and scheduled timeline, ensuring utmost transparency.

Senior officials of the Ministry of Water and Power, Federal Flood Commission, Climate Change Division, National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), Inter Provincial Coordination (IPC), and Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) were also present.

Nawaz said development projects were not completed time during the previous tenures and the cost over-run was a routine matter. Secretary Inter-Provincial Coordination Division briefed the meeting on the implementation status of decisions taken in the last CCI meeting held on December 16, 2016. 

The CCI, while considering an inquiry into corruption charges of Kacchi Canal case, unanimously decided that exemplary punishment be accorded to all the officials involved in the case.

The CCI directed all the provincial representatives to meet with the federal minister for planning and development to finalize matters pertaining to higher education and other similar bodies in post-18th Amendment scenario.

The CCI approved the financing of National Flood Protection Plan Phase-IV at an overall cost of Rs177.661 billion on 50:50 share basis by the federal government and the provincial governments.

For the last several years floods have hit the country, devastating crops and properties, leaving thousands of people displaced and taking away billions of dollars of the economy in losses.

The frequency of extreme climate events, shift of monsoon rainfall zone from North-east to North-west, intense, concentrated monsoon rains in short time of interval, inconsistent behavior of monsoon and erratic flash flood events are the major future challenges. Pakistan being an agricultural economy, this also adversely affects its food security.

“Since 2012, not a single penny has been released by the government to mitigate the challenge, because there is no plan in hand,” official said. Floods normally affect the rural areas, while no government in the past has focused on it and is just allocating a billion rupees for it, but devastation and losses are in billions every year. 

This flood protection plan aims at integrated flood management by focusing on non-structural measures such as reservoir operations, flood forecasting and early warning, flood risk zoning, watershed management, flood proofing and insurance, disaster management and other measures.

The 2010’s historic devastating flood had affected one-fifth of Pakistan, by displacing 20 million people, destroying a million houses, infrastructure, washed away a tenth of standing crops and killing livestock. 

It caused more devastation than combined damages of Asia’s tsunami, 2005’s earthquake in Kashmir and Haiti earthquake.  The World Bank (WB) and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) estimates, in money terms, the 2010’s flood damages were to the tune of $10 billion. After that, almost every year the flood hit Pakistan inflicting billions of dollars losses on economy.

Due to global climate change and its particular impact on Pakistan in recent years, the frequency and intensity of floods and corresponding damages have increased manifold, making it imperative to have an integrated and innovative approach to flood protection.

While keeping in view the increasing flood damages, Ministry of Water & Power through Federal Flood Commission (FFC) formulated the ten-year plan through World Bank funding. Internationally renowned experts in water resources and flood management, “The Deltares” of Netherlands along with (NESPAK) were engaged in this exercise.

An integrated country-wide flood management exercise was conducted during 2011-13 to prepare the plan, which envisages reduction in damages through flood plain mapping and significant improvement in relief and rescue operations. It also aims at flood reduction through watershed management and in reduction in flash flooding through management of hill torrents.

A senior official of the Federal Flood Commissioner (FFC) told The News said, “During the past seven years, overall damages due to floods are almost equal to total flood damages in preceding 60 years.” Floods are the most devastating natural disasters and are generally caused by heavy concentrated rainfall in the catchments during the monsoon season (July through September).

For the agenda item of import of LNG, it was decided that the summary would be circulated to all provinces for soliciting comments and be presented in the next CCI meeting. 

The CCI expressed satisfaction over the 6th Population and Housing Census.  The ministry of finance assured that the census would be completed within the scheduled timeline with utmost transparency. 

The Ministry of Climate Change briefed the meeting that detailed consultations on National Forest Policy 2015 had been completed with all provinces.  The policy only provides for additional federal technical and expert advice as well as coordination with international forums with which Pakistan is signatory to international protocols and agreements. 

Forests, itself being a provincial subject, shall remain under the control of provincial governments for the purposes of implementation. The Minister for Water and Power informed the meeting that issues regarding settlement of Net Hydel Profit (NHP) between Wapda and Government of Punjab had been settled wherein Wapda had issued a promissory note in favour of the Government of Punjab amounting to Rs38.12 billion while a tariff petition was under review for filing with Nepra for recovery of NHP arrears.  The CCI approved amendments to the `Regulation of Generation, Transmission and Distribution of Electric Power Act, 1997'.