Safer, resilient communities: ‘Youth in need of disaster management training’

Social welfare minister addresses disaster awareness seminar.

KARACHI: The word disaster became very common after the 2005 earthquake which hit the northern areas of Pakistan and claimed around 83,000 lives.

This was stated by Sindh social welfare minister Shamim Mumtaz, who was the chief guest at a seminar organised by the Pakistan Red Crescent (PRC)-Sindh in collaboration with German Red Cross to commemorate the International Day for Disaster Reduction (IDDR) at Movenpick Hotel on Monday.

The focus of this year's IDDR theme is 'Live to Tell: Raising Awareness, Reducing Mortality'.

While recalling her school-going days, Mumtaz said that the activities of scouts, civil defence, volunteers and girl guides were very common and every student was aware about how to deal with a natural disaster and had basic education and training regarding it.

Mumtaz shared that her ministry will write a letter to the chief minister asking for the revival of the activities of scouts and girl guides at government schools and colleges. She believed that the younger generation badly needed disaster management training and education to save lives during calamities.

The seminar provided a platform to all stakeholders to know how people and communities around the world are reducing their exposure to disasters through raising awareness.

PRC-Sindh has always helped vulnerable people during natural or man-made disasters, said PRC-Sindh chairperson Farzhana Naek, adding that emergency and disaster response teams consisting of trained volunteers had been introduced to deal with any disaster in Karachi, Thatta, Badin, Jacobabad, Jamshoro, Sanghar, Tharparkar and other districts of the province.

The seminar provided a platform to all agencies of disaster management to prepare for and build safer communities, said Naek, adding that sharing of traditional, indigenous and local knowledge, along with advocacy, is very important to build resilience.



"No mechanism has been introduced in the country to deal with urban disasters and its related challenges. We [Sindh government] have made efforts for a unified ambulance service in the city but only Edhi and Aman foundations agreed, said Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto Trauma Centre Karachi managing board chairperson Saeed Qureshi, adding that on-site triage and first aid until the injured reaches the hospital is very crucial and there should be mass trainings for this.

"In the last 20 years, the frequency and intensity of floods have increased due to climate change. PRC is playing an important role in raising awareness and equipping communities to prepare for these and similar hazards," said PRC-National Headquarters secretary-general Ghulam Muhammad Awan, stressing that there needs to be a collective effort for awareness of climate change.

PRC-Sindh is implementing an integrated community-based risk reduction programme in Sindh in which trained staff are developing and enhancing the skills of the community by providing training on disaster risk reduction and evacuation plans during hazards, health and hygiene and community-based first aid, informed PRC-Sindh provincial secretary Kanwar Waseem.

PRC has established an Emergency Operation Centre at its Karachi headquarters to provide information, preparedness and response in emergency situations, said Waseem, announcing that the centre will be activated by March next year. In terms of disasters, the future of Karachi is not very bright, said NED University civil engineering department dean and Earthquake Research Center in-charge Dr Sarosh Lodhi, maintaining that 92% of the buildings in Karachi are not designed properly, according to the building census data in 1998 and pose a massive threat in future.

Greenhouse gases are the major contributor of environmental change. It is a global issue, said National Institute of Oceanography principal scientific officer Dr Nuzhat Khan, adding that all the important and strategic installations of Karachi are near the coast and so, if a disaster such as a tsunami hits Karachi, it will affect the entire country.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 2^nd, 2016.