LAHORE: The Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) has urged the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) to use technology of “demountable barriers” in the flood affected areas where other permanent flood barriers are not suitable or can be expensive to install.
In a statement issued here, LCCI President Sheikh Muhammad Arshad, Senior Vice President Almas Hyder and Vice President Nasir Saeed said that floods have devastating impact on the overall economy; therefore, there is a dire need to take special measures to tackle the situation.
The LCCI office-bearers said that developed world is using demountable barriers technology successfully to control the impacts of overwhelming floods, particular in the residential areas but situation in Pakistan quite different.
They said that temporary flood barriers are a specific type of floodgate designed to prevent people from flooding and being used in various countries successfully. They said that demountable barriers could also avert loss of billions of dollars and hundreds of precious lives in Pakistan. They mentioned that these temporary flood barriers could be very useful in the markets, industrial units and godowns.
They said that only sand bags are being used in Pakistan as temporary barriers but this method is hardly doing any service to reduce the damages of flood or heavy rain water. They said that compared to sandbags, most temporary flood barriers, being used in developed countries, can be reused, easily deconstructed and easily redeployed for multiple flood events.
The LCCI President said that government would also have to increase spending on flood defences to get rid of the loss of billions dollars and to save precious human lives. They said that budget for flood defences should be reviews and enhanced immediately.
The LCCI office-bearers said that Pakistan is one of those countries where floods play havoc every year and occur loss of $ billion besides eating up lives of thousands people and cattle therefore all option would have to be utilized to reduce the heavy losses.
They said that floods have caused a collective loss of around $ 40 billion. If Kalabagh dam was constructed a few years ago, this loss could have been avoided. He urged the government to start work on Kalabagh dam without further delay. They said that flood warning system should also be upgraded to inform the people well before the time. They said that advanced flood warning system and preplanning would considerably reduce the impacts of floods.
