The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) has formally requested the United Nations Development Organisation (UNDP) to assess damages caused by the recent floods in Punjab, Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) and Gilgit-Baltistan (G-B).
In an exclusive interview with The Express Tribune, NDMA spokesperson and member infrastructure Ahmed Kamal said the authority has sent a letter to UNDP through the Economic Affairs Division (EAD), asking the international agency to carry out a ‘damage need assessment’ (DNA) in flood-ravaged areas. If it agrees, UNDP will be assisted in carrying out the assessment by relevant national agencies, such as provincial disaster management authorities (PDMAs), agriculture and irrigation departments, he said.
Fending off criticism that NDMA failed to anticipate the disaster, Kamal said the disaster management body already had a monsoon contingency plan prior to the calamity, which was shared with all provinces. “We had already prepared a monsoon contingency plan and it was already shared with the provinces before the monsoon,” he said.
He said the authority had also come up with a Disaster Management Plan and related policy frameworks to cope with natural disasters in 2013, all of which had been shared with the provinces along with AJK and G-B as well.
The spokesman added that the authority was only responsible for coordination since disaster management has been devolved to provinces. “Our role is to coordinate with the provinces as to how these plans are implemented while the provincial governments are responsible for the rest of the implementing role.”
According to Kamal, NDMA’s monsoon contingency plan was based on Pakistan Meteorological Department’s (PMD) monsoon outlook, which is routinely shared with the disaster management authority.
He said the monsoon outlook PMD shared with NDMA on August 16 suggested the rains this year would be ‘normal’ for the northern parts of the country and 39% less than ‘normal’ for southern parts. The subsequent monsoon outlook, shared on August 26, suggested even lesser rainfall – between 50-60% less than normal.
“But on September 3, at the eleventh hour, they notified us that there was a likelihood of heavy rains,” the spokesman said. “This left us with very little response time.”
He said that according to the Met department findings, there was 39 per cent less rains than normal in July, 50 per cent less than the normal in August and it was also predicted that 50 to 60 per cent less than normal rain in September.”But the sudden intimation on Sept 3 by the Met department about heavy rains was in the eleventh hour and had very little time response”, he maintained.
According to the NDMA spokesman, rain and flood-related incidents have claimed the lives of 261 people so far. Of these 183 were reported dead in Punjab, 64 in AJK and 14 in G-B. Another 482 people have been injured, he said, 347 of whom were in Punjab, 109 were in AJK and 26 were in G-B.
Around 1.5 million were directly affected by the rains and floods, Kamal said.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 12th, 2014.
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