Disaster reduction day: ‘Inaction to deepen vulnerability’

Climate Change minister says awareness key to tackling disasters

ISLAMABAD: Promoting a culture of awareness surrounding climate change-induced risks and disaster education is critical for communities to tackle frequent natural disasters.

“Protecting lives and livelihoods of people, particularly in the country’s disaster-prone areas such as in the mountains and coastal areas, through public awareness programmes and integrating disaster-resilience in public infrastructure development policies are inevitable to address poverty, hunger, malnutrition, food insecurity and recurring cost of repeatedly restoring public infrastructures,” said Federal Minister for Climate Change Senator Mushahidullah Khan ahead of the International Day for Disaster Reduction — marked every year on October 13.

The day, the climate change minister said, helps sensitise people about reducing vulnerability to climate change-induced disasters.

Mushahidullah warned that the country’s seventh-placed ranking for vulnerability to disasters could worsen if all the relevant federal and provincial government organisations fail to implement relevant disaster-risk reduction programmes, particularly in agriculture, energy, water, health, education, transport and  infrastructure sectors.

“The climate change-related disasters, particularly riverine and flash floods, cause around $4 billion of losses annually in economic damages, most of them related to agriculture, water, irrigation, health, education, energy and public infrastructure sectors,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 13^th, 2017.