LCCI Urges Concerned To Use 'demountable Flood Barriers Technology'

LAHORE, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 1st Augst,2016) : Lahore Chamber of Commerce & Industry on Monday urged 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. Talking to media here, LCCI President Sheikh Muhammad Arshad, Senior Vice President Almas Hyder and Vice President Nasir Saeed said that floods had devastation impacted upon overall economy therefore there was a dire need to take special measures to tackle the situation. The LCCI office-bearers said that developed world was using demountable barriers technology successfully to control the impacts of overwhelming floods, particular in the residential areas. They said that temporary flood barriers were a specific type of floodgate designed to prevent people from flooding and being used in various countries successfully.

They added that demountable barriers could also avert loss of billions of Dollars and hundreds of precious lives in Pakistan and these temporary flood barriers could be very useful in the markets, industrial units and godowns. They said that only sand bags were being used in Pakistan as temporary barriers but this method was 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, could be reused, and easily redeployed for multiple flood events. The LCCI President said that the concerned 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 reviewed and enhanced immediately. He mentioned, Pakistan was one of those countries where floods played havoc every year and occured loss of billion of dollars, besides eating up lives of thousands of people and cattle-heads, therefore all option would have to be utilized to reduce the heavy losses.

He said that floods had caused a collective loss of around USD 40 billion and if mega dam was constructed a few years ago, this loss could have been avoided. Flood warning system should also be upgraded to inform the people well before the time, he said and added that advanced flood warning system and preplanning would considerably reduce impacts of floods.