NDMA alerts provinces to gear up for extreme climate events

KARACHI: National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) has warned of extreme climate events, including intensive heat waves, extraordinary snow melting, land sliding, flash floods, forest fires and cyclones.

NDMA through an official letter, a copy of which is available to The News, has informed all provincial governments of the extraordinary preparations to face probable extreme climate events from April to October. NDMA issued region-specified preparatory instructions to all Disaster Management (DM) authorities, and stakeholders to release region-specified impact-based alerts and advisories for timely proactive preparations. Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission (SUPARCO) and Pakistan Metrological Department (PMD) have been asked to monitor changes in glacier melt vulnerable ‘glacier lake outburst flood’ (GLOF) sites and continuously assess the likely impact of these developments on river flows downstream in the water reservoirs and issue monitoring reports on a fortnightly basis. Besides the PDMA Sindh, Baluchistan and Gilgit-Baltistan were informed that Pakistan Metrological Department (PMD) has forecasted higher temperatures in northern regions and along the coastal belt during the period from May to July.