Flood warning system installed on seven rivers

PDMA’s monsoon contingency plan under development

PESHAWAR:

The Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) has installed flood early warning systems on seven locations on different rivers and has been working on monsoon contingency plan in consultation with all the stakeholders.

The outcome of the contingency plan will reinforce prevention, mitigation and response to monsoon related disasters.

In this connection a series of pre planning and orientation meetings were held with representatives of district administration, line departments, federal and provincial academia and other partners.

Director General PDMA Sharif Hussain said that process of monsoon contingency planning was started from the 1st week of March by involving all stakeholders and a contingency plan will be developed by the mid of May.

Tools for data collection are developed and shared with all stakeholders including information regarding district, sector specific hazards and vulnerability profile, hazard impact, damages, compensation paid, resource mapping, need assessment and coordination.

He added that natural hazards and subsequent disasters caused massive losses to life and livelihoods.

The climate change has increased the vulnerability further. The contingency plan will categorise the districts vulnerability and risk assessment into very high, high, medium and low categories. The peculiar geography, terrain and natural resources make the K-P province prone to a number of calamities during both summers and winters.

According to the Director Disaster Risk Management PDMA Zuhra Nigar, PDMA has initiated the process of introducing proactive preparedness regime under guidelines established by National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) for streamlining response at provincial and district levels in coordination with all stakeholders.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 19^th, 2022.