PESHAWAR: Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has prepared Monsoon Contingency Plan in consultations with all stakeholders including district administrations and concerned departments of provincial and federal governments.
The Director General (DG) PDMA, Sharif Hussain has said that the contingency plan has been prepared while keeping in view technical as well as situation after natural disasters occurred in past. In past, he said natural disasters have caused the loss of human lives, livelihood and houses. Under this plan, planning has been evolved to protect from losses due to natural disasters and combating of emergency situation.
Under Monsoon Contingency Plan 2021 all aspects of large and small scale disasters, large scale losses and emergency situation have been pinpointed. PDMA has also provided sufficient relief goods to all districts of the province and funds for combating any kind of emergency situation.
DG PDA said that consultations for Monsoon Contingency plan with all stakeholders were started in first week of March 2021. Data collecting tools has also been prepared in collaboration with all stakeholders and profiling has been made regarding district/sector specified threats. He said that during several last decades, KP has faced different kind of natural disasters including earthquake, flood, Corona pandemic that kept economy under pressure.
Sharif Hussain said that climate change and global warming various incidents including flood due to melting of iceberg in northern areas have been occurred in the province during recent years' heavy rains in Malakand and Hazara that have inflicted heavy losses on people.
According to Monsoon Plan 2021, nine districts of the province including Charsadda, DI Khan, Shangla, Dir Upper, Nowshera, Swat, Chitral Upper and Chitral Lower have been declared sensitive while the Met Office has forecasted normal rains during current season.
Similarly, according to Director (Disaster Risk Management) PDMA, Zuhra Nigar the authority in mutual cooperation with Irrigation Department has installed Flood Forecast Station on seven rivers of the province to arrest losses from floods in the province. Such flood forecast stations have been installed on River Swat at Khawazakhela (Swat), Chakdara and on River Panjkora, Munda head works, River Kalpani (Mardan) at Ring Road Bridge.
The installation of stations will help advance information regarding flood and rain and monitoring of the growing level of water in canals and nullahs to minimize human and financial losses.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2021
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