Natural disasters: Risk assessment needs to be carried out across country: member NDMA

ISLAMABAD: A member of the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) stated on Thursday that there are national frameworks with regard to dealing with disasters and risks reduction but their implementation is lacking.

While speaking at a panel discussion titled, “Managing Natural Disasters in Pakistan” organised by the Centre for Strategic Perspectives (CSP) at the Institute of Strategic Studies Islamabad (ISSI), member NDMA Masud Khan – who attended the discussion instead of the NDMA chairman – stated there is a need to strengthen coordination at the provincial and district levels for the reduction of disasters risks.

Pakistan has national frameworks in place but what is lacking is their implementation, he said and added that risk assessment needs to be carried out across Pakistan to determine the vulnerable areas and measures should be taken to mitigate them.

He further maintained although the country may not be able to completely reduce such risk, it can prepare itself for their reduction. He underlined the importance of climate disaster management and stated that humanitarian facilities have been created across the country with a number of response services.

He added that after the 2005 earthquake, building codes were updated, however, their implementation remained an issue. He said that rainfalls have significantly more compared to the forecast and in some area 1,700 millimetre rains was received. He said that population and poverty are likely to further enhance vulnerability as more poverty means more vulnerability.

Raja Rehan Arshad, former lead disaster risk management specialist, World Bank stated that floods 2022 should be taken as a wakeup call as disaster is a multi-layered calamity. He said that natural hazards should not be looked as a major threat but as a holistic approach. Policy, financing, implementation, and regulatory institutions need to be looked into together as a collective, he further stated and added that scenario analysis and risk identification should be done at national and regional levels. He said that contingent funds are required to be set up for disasters so that country does not have to repurpose development funds and look for international financing.

Dr Imran Khalid, Governance and Policy, WWF was of the view that climate change is not a major issue. He further said that global warming targets are out of reach, especially for vulnerable countries such as Pakistan which impact it adversely. COP-27 will not be able to produce desired results as the developed world is not fulfilling its commitments. Maryam Shabbir Abbasi, visiting Senior Research Associate, SDPI suggested the gender issues are also needed to be managed during disaster mitigation.

Dr Neelum Nigar, Director Centre for Strategic Perspectives (CSP) open the discussion and Aizaz Ahmad Caudhry, Director General, ISSI stated that Pakistan is facing unprecedented floods and whether it is a recurring phenomenon or an exceptional situation still needs to be determined.

In his welcome remarks, Aamir Hasan said that in the last decade Pakistan has faced major natural disasters in the form of floods leading to a humanitarian crisis in the country.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022