Emergency bodies’ merger to speed up flood relief

ISLAMABAD: The Emergency Relief Cell (ERC) has been merged with the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) to strengthen and speed up relief efforts during natural calamities, according to the authority’s chairman, Maj Gen Asghar Nawaz. Earlier, the cell was working under the cabinet division.

“Pakistan is on a list of countries that are most vulnerable to disasters mainly because of climate change,” Nawaz told The Express Tribune in an exclusive interview. “ERC’s merger with the NDMA will help coordinate relief efforts more effectively and promptly.”

About the recent floods which have claimed 179 lives and affected 1,238,884 people, he said: “Usually, such floods occur in Pakistan during the monsoon season, but the Chitral flash flood was a bit unexpected and unanticipated.” Normally, Chitral doesn’t receive monsoon rains but now the region is under the influence of climate change, he explained. This year’s monsoon rains have come from western affect, while usually they come from the Himalayan side, he added.

The flash flood was no more a new phenomenon for Chitralis as they had experienced it back in 2013. However, they did not take precautionary measures well before time which caused avoidable human losses. Chitralis were caught unawares, they were resting while the river flowing nearby broke its banks, he added.



The NDMA chairman further said that this year’s flash flood level in Chitral was higher than in 2013 and the major reason was the fast melting of glaciers. “The emerging situation in Chitral requires special handling and sustained mitigation efforts,” he added. “It is the responsibility of provincial irrigation departments and Federal Flood Commission.”

“There is a need to have a long-term strategy to cope with such a situation in the future in Chitral district. Meanwhile, there is a need to have short-term plans to tackle the situation,” he said.  “We have to identify those population centres or hubs which are more at risk and relocation of population to avoid more human loss in future.”

Challenges

There is a need to modernise the Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD). This will ultimately strengthen the early response system though they are doing a commendable job within the limited resources they have, he said.

Recommendations

The NDMA chairman said there was a need to implement the River Act to carry out sustainable structural measures for the mitigation of floods. He also felt that carrying out massive community awareness campaigns and strengthening emergency response system, especially at district level, would help.

“There is a need to teach climate change as a subject and ready to carry out adaption of global climate changes,” he said. “There is a need to carry out micro level risk assessment especially in most vulnerable areas of the country.”

He further said that the NDMA was not facing any kind of financial constraints as it has non-lapsable budget worth Rs 1.5 billion.

While replying to a question, he said currently all the departments and organisations were closely working together for providing relief to the flood-stricken people. “There is an incorrect perception that there is a lack of coordination between them,” he claimed.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 10^th, 2015.