PITB’s Flood Monitoring System mitigates peoples’ snags: Dr. Umar Saif

Lahore: Chairman Punjab Information Technology Board (PITB) Dr. Umar Saif has said that the Flood Monitoring System devised by the PITB is active to save hundreds of human lives and precious belongings of the people residing in the flood area of Punjab.

He was addressing a meeting held in his office on Monday. Reviewing the capacity and efficiency of the system Dr. Saif said “one of the most crucial issues that the government has had till the recent past was keeping up-to-date with the progress on flood relief development and work. To counter this issue, Punjab Information Technology Board (PITB) has developed a real time flood monitoring dashboard through the use of information technology. This system helps keep a track of the latest flood development while keeping in loop all the concerned departments. Additionally, the system supports to ensure the payment of compensations to the affected persons transparently and in shortest time,”

Elaborating the functions, Dr. Saif said “the dashboard by PITB is updated with a disaster bulletin on hourly basis by PITB and concerned departments during the flood season. Each bulletin provides details such as the flood affected areas, the injuries and the death toll. Flood Monitoring System has proved to be of great benefit to the government and flood relief organizations as well since it also highlights the development at the Head Works, barrages, river and canal banks, roads, spurs, dikes and bridges both during normal water flow or an alert situation. The Inundation Map in the system reveals the overall flood hit areas through which the government has been able to take real time relief and evacuation measures, hence, minimizing the possible chaos in such disastrous circumstances.”

Quoting a report of the World Health Organization, Dr. Umar Saif said that the flash floods of last year have caused 346 deaths leaving 620 people injured in Pakistan, more than 55,200 houses were damaged or destroyed and almost 3 million people were affected while stagnant water in the flooded areas caused severe health issues along with outbreak of epidemics and other diseases. “This situation may arise every year when flood hits Pakistan. It demands effective emergency preparedness and rapid response that our computerized Flood Mentoring System fulfills efficiently,” he asserted.