Pakistan highly vulnerable to disaster risks

Islamabad
From a range of natural hazards due to geographic reasons, Pakistan is marked as highly vulnerable to disaster risks by experts.
Reviewing past 10 years of Pakistan’s history, it would not be wrong to state that the natural and manmade disasters namely internal conflict, 2005 earthquake and flash floods in the last decade have impacted the country’s development and caused severe damage to the infrastructure, human lives and overall the livelihoods of vulnerable communities.
Pakistan faced drought for a prolonged period of 1998 to 2001. Later the country was shocked by the earthquake of 2005. In 2007, from June to July, 3 million people were affected due to the storms and cyclones in Sindh and Balochistan and this was followed by flash floods in the coastal regions and frontier province at the end of the decade which displaced more than 20 million people. Since then, Pakistan is facing floods every year.
The World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction (WCDRR) to be held in Japan from 14-18 March 2015 is going to be the highest level of meeting to set forth commitments to minimise the risks for disasters. Pakistan would be participating in this global event as an effective representation and positioning to make an effort towards minimising disaster risk factors.
Natural hazard have been defined as “Natural phenomena which pose a threat to people, structures or economic assets and may cause disaster. High winds, floods, fires, volcanic eruption, landslides, droughts and earthquakes are all natural hazards”. Out of 6 major natural hazards, namely, floods, cyclones, droughts, landslides, earthquakes and volcanoes, Pakistan has been a victim of all these natural hazards except for volcanoes (Tahir, 2007).
Natural disasters are an outcome of a complex interaction between natural hazards with a society/community as, a natural disaster occurs when an extreme geological, meteorological, or hydrological event exceeds the ability of a community to cope with that event.
The United Nations General Assembly Resolution adopted in 2013 (68/211) on International Strategy for Disaster Reduction states that the World Conference will result in a concise, focused, forward-looking, and action-oriented outcome document to adopt a post-2015 framework for disaster risk reduction.