CM, NDMA agree on adopting technology to fight disasters

Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah and National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) Chairman Lt Gen Inam Haider agreed in their meeting at the CM House on Saturday that modern technology would be adopted for disaster management in the country.

Shah said that most of the natural disasters are weather-related, so their forecast can be made much before their occurrence through technological help. He said that this will help the provincial and federal governments in making a contingency plan much before a disaster. The NDMA chief said his organisation had developed close coordination with international agencies working on forecasting weather and its related impacts. He said the NDMA itself was installing latest weather-related equipment and gadgets to assess the weather and the patterns of disasters during the past few decades.

He told the CM that the provincial disaster management authorities will be also connected with their systems, along with sharing daily reports and forecast warnings, so that they can make their plans and necessary preparations accordingly.

Shah said that his province has been facing disasters since the 2010 floods, then came the flash floods in 2011, followed by urban floods, and more recently, heavy rains and floods last year.

“We must learn lessons from these natural disasters, and must equip and strengthen our institutions to mitigate the impact of such disasters through contingency plans and timely forecasts.”

During their meeting, they also agreed on further strengthening coordination between the NDMA and the Provincial Disaster Management Authority, Sindh, so that proper planning can be done to mitigate the impacts of natural disasters.