Averting disasters: Japan to help shape 10-year plan to tackle calamities

The JICA team is in Pakistan to help NDMA shape the strategy.


Peer Muhammad January 25, 2012

ISLAMABAD:


In a bid to cope with the growing challenges of natural calamities facing Pakistan, the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) is planning to frame a new 10-year strategy called the National Disaster Management Plan 2012-22.


The new plan will be prepared in collaboration with the Japanese government, which would assist the NDMA prepare a state-of-the-art disaster management policy to reduce the losses caused by natural calamities.

The proposed 10-year plan will be prepared this year and is scheduled to be implemented from 2013 to 2022. Under the plan, early warning and flash floods guidance systems would be established at local levels across the country, human resources would be trained and disaster management offices would be strengthened at district and local levels.

Further, a medium to long-range forecasting system will also be developed along with establishing an effective response force for disaster. Guidelines for disaster management for local communities and new building codes would also be part of the plan.

The plan will be framed by incorporating inputs from all agencies concerned, including the Federal Flood Commission, Ministry of Water and Power, provincial disaster management authorities, Geological Survey of Pakistan and the Pakistan Meteorological Department.

Sources in the NDMA said that a team from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) is in Pakistan and would soon visit different districts of the calamity-hit areas of various provinces to assess and gather data to accommodate in the new policy.

“We cannot stop natural disasters, but can reduce their risks by adopting proactive approaches and pre-emptive measures”, said NDMA Member Planning Ahmed Kamal while talking to The Express Tribune.

He said that they were going to shape the plan keeping in view the ground realities of each part of the country which could be affected in the future.

Over the last decade, Kamal added, Pakistan has witnessed severe climate change and monsoon cyclones have also drastically changed their directions from the north-eastern part of the country to the north-western parts. He stated that in the future, at least 15 districts of Khyber-Pukhtunkhwa, northern Punjab and central Sindh will be at high risk of cyclones.

Kamal said that due to the increasing effects of climate change, length of the summer season had also increased, thereby reducing the winter period, which has impacted weather conditions across the deserts of Sindh, Punjab and Balochistan. He added that these provinces also received 2.5 times more rainfall than usual.

He said that the NDMA has also asked the Planning Commission to approve those mega projects which could resist the ill-effects of natural disasters.

Currently, however, the NDMA lacks special budget, permanent staff, experts in various fields — factors which continue to create hurdles to cope with disasters on a national level.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 25th, 2012. 

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