Earthquake, landslide: Rs200m to be spent on identifying ‘hotspots’

ISLAMABAD: The government would spend funds amounting to Rs 200 million to advance an ongoing project, during the current fiscal year, to identify and compile data on the country’s ‘active faults’ and possible landslide ‘hotspot’ zones aimed at minimizing the disaster risk activities.

The project, initiated with Rs40 million allocations under the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP 2021-22), would be completed at an estimated total cost of Rs412.769 million in a three-year period, according to an official document available with APP.

The main focus of the project, titled “Pakistan National Research Programme on Geological Hazards (Earthquakes and Landslides) - Data Acquisition along Active Faults and Identification of Potential Landslides Hotspot Zones,” would help in identifying the earthquake-prone areas and landslide hotspots in the country.

Besides, the establishment of a new network of Global Navigation Satellite Stations (GNSS - permanent as well as periodic) and a countrywide landslide inventory database would be carried out.

“The outcome will lay a solid foundation for a reliable hazard assessment and hazard zonation related to earthquakes and landslides. It will also pave the way for more detailed hazard assessment studies specific to particular areas.

During the first year of the project, the departments concerned were tasked to fill the posts by assignments from regular strength, purchase durable goods, establish the project office, collect and review technical data.

In addition, the desk work for selection of potential sites, fieldwork for acquiring fault data and landslide inventory, data processing and analysis besides preliminary report compilation had to be carried out during the last fiscal year.