Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, May 29: A workshop on “River Morphology Study, Flood Mitigation and Comprehensive River Management measures for Jhelum basin” was organized by the Management unit of Jhelum & Tawi Flood Recovery Project (JTFRP) funded by World Bank at SKICC, here today.
Dr Raghav Langer, Chief Executive Officer, JKERA/ JTFRP in his inaugural address said that the workshop will provide the platform for sharing their experiences and incorporating them into the study that is being conducted under the Jhelum Tawi Flood Recovery Project. He said that better information sharing would lead to better results.
Pandurang Kondbarao Pole, Secretary, Department of Disaster Management, Relief, Rehabilita-tion and Reconstruction, who was guest of honour, said that the better information sharing and coordination between various line departments is crucial to formulating long lasting solutions for strengthening the resilience to floods.
Ajeet Kumar Sahu, Commissioner Secretary, PHE and I&FC who was also guest of honour, stressed on the need for creating the scientific database available within the various departments at a single platform.
Chief guest, Rohit Kansal, Principal Secretary, Department of Planning, Development and Monitoring, in his key note address, said that the main aim of the ongoing World Bank funded JTFRP is to ensure that we don’t have to go through the traumatic experience of 2014 floods again in our lives. He added that prevention of encroachment of urban flood plain is vital to prevention of such floods in future.
David Sargent, Team Leader Eptisa private limited a consultancy that has been engaged by JTFRP for the preparation of River Morphology Study of Jhelum River Basin gave a comprehensive presentation on history of floods in Kashmir, Impact of 2014 floods, present status of the study being undertaken under JTFRP, various possible solutions to prevent recurrence of such floods in future.
Later presentations were also given by the experts on the field of Flood Forecasting, Early Warning, Fluvial Geomorphol-ogy, Inundation map modeling, environmental assessment study of Jhelum basin. The technical session was followed by interactive session.