2013 Capacity Development for Integrated Flood Risk Management in Pakistan

Pakistani officials (front row) at the opening ceremony

From May 28 to June 6, 2013, ICHARM conducted a workshop, “Capacity Development for
Integrated Flood Risk Management in Pakistan,” specifically designed to middle- tohigh-ranking officials of the Pakistani government. It was the second installment of theworkshop, following the first held last year with six participants.

The workshop was originally organized as part of a project, “Strategic Strengthening ofFlood Warning and Management Capacity of Pakistan,” which was launched inresponse to the mega flood that hit Pakistan in 2010. The project was funded by theJapanese government through UNESCO.
The following five Pakistani officials participated in this workshop:
Mr. Salman Memon
Advisor, Water Distribution Cell, Irrigation & Power Department, Governmentof Sindh
Mr. Muhammad Naeem
Director General, Flood Damages Restoration Directorate, Floods & Irrigation
Department, Government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
Mr. Hazrat Mir
Chief Meteorologist, Pakistan Meteorological Department
Mr. Alamgir Khan
Chief Engineer (Floods), Federal Flood Commission, Pakistan Ministry of Waterand PowerMr. Iftikhar Mir
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Suprintending Engineer/Provincial Coordinator, Irrigation & Power Department,
Government of Balochistan
The workshop consisted of lectures andfield studies. In the series of lectures, theparticipants learned about Japan’s legal
system for flood measures, methods forcollecting

andmeteorologicalandcommunicating
floodinformation,

workings of flood forecasting and warning,and collective operation of multiple dams.
In addition, researchers of ICHARM andLecture by ICHARM Director

JAXA presented their latest research forthem, including IFAS, the RRI model and GSMaP. On May 30, when they visited theJapan Meteorological Agency, the Wide-Area Water Management Headquarters of theRiver Department of the MLIT Kanto Regional Development Bureau, and the Japan
Water Agency, they were also provided with lectures on outline of the Network of AsianRiver Basin Organization (NARBO). They were particularly overwhelmed to learn thatabout 3,000 monitoring cameras were installed in the service area of the Kanto Bureau
for real-time monitoring of rivers and roads.
From May 31, the participants took a series of study tours. They were first taken to see
flood control measures implemented in major rivers in the Kanto region such as
Tonegawa, Kinugawa and Arakawa. On May 31, they visited the MLIT Tonegawa-joryu
River Office, at which they listened to a lecture about water-level forecasting andcooperation with local municipalities. After that, they looked around the Kurihashi
district for signs and facilities to promote public awareness towards floods. The district
has been practicing the “Marugoto-machigoto hazard map” project, in which signs areposted on power poles to show water levels during the 1949 flood disaster due toTyphoon Kathleen. At the Kurihashi Branch Office, they also saw a tall tower thatshows the current water level of the Tonegawa River. At Kurihashi Station, there is alsoa display to show river information. After that, they went to the Watarase retarding
basin. Very interested in the roles of the retarding basin in improvement of water
quality and preservation of the environment, they asked many questions.

2Lecture at Japan Meteorological Agency

Lecture at Kanto Regional Development Bureau

Lecture on NARBO at Japan Water Agency

Lecture at Tonegawa-joryu River Office

Marugoto-machigoto hazard map“Kawaraban,” a Tonegawa water-levelindicator at Kurihashi Branch Officeof Kuki CityRiver information display
at Kurihashi Station

Visit to Watarase Retarding Basin3On June 3, the party visited dams and sabo structures located in the upper Kinugawa
basin. They first went to the Kinugawa Dam Management Office and listened toexplanation about four dams in upper Kinugawa and collaborative operation of Ikariand Kawaji dams. Then, they moved to Kawaji Dam, where they walked through aninspection gallery inside the dam and took a catwalk up around an outlet gate. The finaldestination of the day was the Nikko Sabo Office, where they learned about a sabo
project for the Inarigawa River and took a close look at a sabo structure.

Lecture at Kinugawa
DamDamManagement OfficeKawaji

Sabo structure (center, far back)in Inarigawa River of Nikko

On June 4, the participants visited a museum named “amoa,” where they learned about
urban river flood control measures with help from the Arakawa-karyu River Office.
They were first given a lecture about the history of the Arakawa River as a man-madediversion channel and then took a close look at the super levee, a disaster management
station, quake-resistant water gate, and a lock gate. After that, they also visited thePakistan Embassy and had a chance to talk with Ambassador of Pakistan to Japan
Farukh Amil.

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In front of a boat

Super Levee around Shinden on
Arakawa River

Lecture on Arakawa River on a boat

Courtesy visit to Pakistani Ambassador to JapanOn June 5, the participants paid a courtesy visit to Japan’s governmental agencies
related to this Pakistan project, including MLIT, Foreign Ministry, Education Ministry,and JICA. Each visit was a great opportunity for them, for they had a chance to meetwith high-ranking agency officials there.

Courtesy visit to JICA

Courtesy visit to MLIT

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Courtesy visit to the Japanese National Commission for UNESCO

On the final day, the participants presented the results of the workshop, followed bydiscussions with ICHARM researchers. In the closing ceremony, after PWRI Chief
Executive Taketo Uomoto’s speech, each participant was awarded with a workshop
certificate, which ended the entire training process.

A training participant receiving a certificate fromICHARM Director Kuniyoshi Takeuchi

Report presentation at ICHARM

The participants praised the workshop for its excellent contents and organization. They
were particularly impressed with river management in Japan, including how steadilyplans are put into action. They also commented that retarding basins like the one they
saw at Watarase should be effective for flood control in the Indus River basin.
Furthermore, they seemed inspired by the fact that the Arakawa diversion channel has
been playing a very important part in Tokyo’s development. Some of them showed astrong interest in sabo structures at Nikko and the CCTV system implemented in theKanto Bureau’s service area. Back home, they will discuss and plan how to cope withfloods and what measures to take, based on what they have learned in this workshop.
Finally, we would like to thank all MLIT offices and agencies that cooperated with us forthis successful installation of the workshop.
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