Chairman National Disaster Management Authority Zafar Iqbal Qadir has said a disaster management policy is being formulated to better deal with the future disasters in the country.
This he said while addressing a news conference along with Special
Representative of the UN Secretary General on Disaster Risk Margareta
Wahlstrom in Islamabad here on Saturday.
He said the policy will particularly focus on disaster prevention and
preparedness. For this purpose, vulnerability profile of all the
districts will be prepared so that preventive and mitigation measures
could be taken accordingly.
He said a trained, organized and well structured disaster response
force will be raised at the federal, provincial and district levels to
effecitvely cope with the disasters. The force will be given proper
training and equipment to deal with any emergency like situation. He
said a similar force already exists in Punjab and it will be replicated
in other provinces as well.
He said efforts will also be made for enhancing the capacity of Suparco and Met office for early prediction of any calamity.
He expressed the confidence that the international donors will help Pakistan in implementation of disaster management policy.
Special Representative of the UN Secretary General on Disaster Risk
Margareta Wahlstrom said the United Nations will continue to help
Pakistan in its efforts for disaster risk reduction and management. She
said the country has coped well with the disasters during the last six
years starting from 2005 earthquake to last year’s floods. She said the
reconstruction activities in Azad Kashmiri are a good example of
‘rebuild back better”.
Responding to a question about Sindh floods, the Chairman National
Disaster Management Authority said damage assessment survey is being
started in the twenty-three districts of the flood-affected province
from Monday and the team will submit its report by the end of this
month.
He said the international community has so far pledged one hundred
and fifty million dollars in response to the UN appeal for the Sindh
flood victims while the country has so far received sixty one million
dollars.SANA
