Rains to trigger urban flooding, make locust attack severe: NDMA.

ISLAMABAD -- The National Disaster ManageAment Authority (NDMA) has warned that the country faces three major threats during the upcoming monsoon season: serious flooding in all major cities, landslides and glacier outbursts in hilly areas and the ongoing locust invasion becoming more severe during rains.

It asked all relevant authorities in the provinces and major cities to make preparations to face these challenges.

Speaking at a pre-monsoon preparatory meeting on Friday, NDMA chairman Lt Gen Mohammad Afzal said that because of expected above-normal rains watercourses and drains in major cities must be cleaned immediately.

'All major cities are prone to flooding and I will request authorities in Karachi to clean all drains while Sukkur, Hyderabad, Gujranwala, Rawalpindi, Lahore, Jhelum and Nowshera need immediate attention by local authorities,' he said.

The National Contingency Plan 2020 prepared by the NDMA was presented at the meeting attended by all officials of relevant federal and provincial government agencies and representatives of UN agencies, NGOs and INGOs working in the field of disaster management.

The meeting noted that every year there was a risk of flooding in the monsoon season which normally begins in the country at the end of June and continued till September.

The meeting was informed that traditional phenomenon in the monsoon season includes floods in rivers, flashfloods in hilly areas, landslides and glacier outbursts, but the growing population of cities and developments along the natural water courses had also resulted in rampant urban flooding across the country.

The NDMA chairman referred to the massive flooding in...