The recent floods have caused immense devastation and distress for the entire nation and this situation demands that government should evolve a viable strategy to minimize the losses of future floods.

This was said by Mr.Zahid Maqbool, President, Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry (ICCI) in a statement. He said that the floods have destroyed homes, crops, roads, bridges and communication networks throughout Pakistan causing loss to the economy to the tune of $ 43 billion. Therefore, comprehensive plans & strategies should be developed to minimize the damages of such floods in future.

He said that to protect the population from future floods, government should strengthen the existing protective bunds and new protective bunds should also be undertaken so that the outburst of floodwaters could be contained in future.

He said that the floods have inflicted huge losses to vital installation including power stations, grid stations, transmission lines etc. He said that in future, the construction of such facilities should be located far from the flood zone areas while protective layers should also be build around the existing installations.

Mr.Zahid Maqbool said that as the climatic conditions are changing due to which country may witness more such floods in coming times. Therefore, Pakistan should construct flood protection shelters to provide temporary shelters to affected people and their livestock & other belongings.

He said that government should undertake a serious forestation drive as the further deforestation of forests will cause more floods in the country. He said that the construction of residential buildings, commercial centres etc in low-laying river banks should be discouraged to minimize future human and material loss.

He stressed for the need of constructing big and small dams and water reservoirs in the country to mitigate the dangers of floods. He said that these reservoirs should be constructed in barren areas in lower Punjab, Sindh and Balochistan with the cooperation of local and provincial governments, especially those areas which were inundated recently.