Dire Need for Disaster Management in Pakistan

[sonicboom]

Dire Need for Disaster Management in Pakistan

muhammad qaddafi August 25, 2010


In the past Pakistan has experienced severe floods in 1973, 1992, 2006 and 2010. But 2010 flood breaks all records. Latest Government estimates put the number of people directly affected by the floods at 15.4 million, and the number continues to rise (National and Provincial Disaster Management Authorities,16 August).

Due to its unique geo-climatic conditions, Pakistan is one of the most disaster prone countries in the world Over 40% of landmass is vulnerable to earthquakes, 6% to cyclone, 60% to floods and 25% of the Barani land under cultivation is vulnerable to drought.

If one adds the losses in Pakistan, where most of the property of the people, especially in the rural areas remains uninsured, the losses are astronomical.

The unique geo-environmental setting of the North Himalayas, the heavy rainfall, weak geological formations, accelerated rates of erosion followed by silting and meandering of rivers, very high seismicity makes the Northern area one of the most disaster prone regions in the country. Considering this, and the comparative inaccessibility, the North region demands special attention to minimize loss of lives and social, private and community losses and to ensure sustainable development.

Government of Pakistan after 2005 earthquake established an authority for disaster management but due to lack of technical knowledge and manpower the authority failed to play its role effectively while coping with these disasters. There is an urgent need to build the capacity of this authority and also clearly lay down its bylaws and mandate. NDMA thinks that its role is only to regulatory which is totally wrong perception, the role of any national disaster management authority all over the world is to regulate, coordinate, develop systems and train technical manpower for disaster management.

Disaster management is multidimensional field and requires technical knowledge to get job done. Army can not manage disasters. The only role army can play in disaster management is that they can respond to post disaster phase for rescue, relief and recovery on request, but here we misuse army in disaster management which not only keeps them away from their original task but also puts extra burden on armed forces, inspite of the fact that the army has played an efficient role in all national calamities. On the other hand it also indicates a weakness in NDMA, which is responsible to provide technical assistance to other government agencies in disaster management. But we witness that due to lack of technical knowledge and techniques we suffer maximum damages in term of life and property, e.g. in Air Blue crash the plane caught by fire for many hours and rescue workers reached the spot in minimum possible time but they fail to control the fire and rescue the victims because they don’t have fire fighting knowledge, this fire can easily be controlled if they put green bushes on fire which is very effective instrument in absence of water, these green bushes are wild and extensively available at crash spot, but we let the bodies burn to ashes, secondly I also observed the search operation for black box which was also conducted in nonprofessional manner. These type of searches must be carried out by trained searchers according to search methods (triage search or up to down left to right search) and with the support of magnetic rods which could have identified the black box.

Due to frequent occurrence of natural disasters the newly formed agency, National disaster management authority (NDMA), has failed to develop system across the country to handle disaster at national level. Training and capacity building of the officials dealing with emergencies would be an important instrument of disaster reduction and recovery.

While natural hazards cannot be controlled, the disaster inflicted by there hazards on the people can be reduced by planned mitigation and preparedness measures. There needs to be concerted and sustained steps towards reducing the vulnerability of the country to disasters.

Taking into consideration the value of development gains which are wiped out through disasters, as also the huge quantum of funds required for post disaster relief and rehabilitation, any investment in disaster mitigation will yield a higher rate of return than any other development project.

A paradigm shift is needed to shift focus from reactive to proactive i.e. from relief to prevention and mitigation of disasters.

Chowk: Current Affairs: Dire Need for Disaster Management in Pakistan