The formulation of effective policy is inevitable for minimising the disasters risk, as the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and rest part of the country being faced with substantial human and infrastructure losses due to the absence of such mechanism to rapidly cope with the catastrophic situation, said speakers at the seminar held here on Tuesday.
The seminar titled: "Living with disaster and disability" held under auspices of Provincial Disaster Management Authority in collaboration with collaboration of Comprehensive Health and Education Forum CHEF-International, Help-Age and IDEAS, to mark the "Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR)" day here at Nishtar Hall, Peshawar. Notable speakers included Advisor to Chief Minister on transport and relief Yaseen Khalil and Director General PDMA Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Atif Rehman.
Mostly speakers stressed the need for devising a comprehensive plan, for reduction of the impacts of earthquake and other natural disasters. They viewed that a considerable portion of Pakistan, primarily Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa has been struck by earthquakes and floods in recent past. Political unrest, extremism and militancy make matter worse. All these disasters manifest themselves in the form of millions of people dead, injured and crippled.
Yaseen Khalil, while addressing on the occasion, said the natural disaster, political unrest, extremism and militancy operation further added to the miseries of the people. He added all these disasters resulted millions of people dead, injured and disabled forever. He suggested that to encounter these calamities, formulation of policies for Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) is the need of the time. He maintained that Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa government will initiate planning at Union Council level to counter the affects of natural disaster. He said a well-connected information system will be needed to timely predict floods and flow of various rivers.
"Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa practically incorporated all DRR principles in reconstruction of damaged infrastructure in Malakand division which can be replicated as a model," said Atif Rehman, Director General PDMA Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.
Atif added "PDMA should also prepare our Annual Monsoon Contingency Plan in consultation with all the stakeholders with a view to assess the resource need availability and subsequent placement of resources while at the same time defining roles and responsibilities of each and every department." "The Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa has already established working group on natural calamities and disaster which would work jointly with Provincial Disaster Management Authority to counter any emergency in the province," he informed.
It is to mention here that United Nations will observe October 13 as International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR-Day). The objectives of the "International DRR-Day" are to spread knowledge about the importance of DRR and create awareness in communities for reducing risks to disasters. Government of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa decided to observe the DRR-Day, 2013, on October 8 instead of 13th in solidarity with the victims of 2005 Earthquake.
