WB agrees to assist disaster management projects: NDMA

Islamabad: National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) Chairman Lt. Gen Omar Mahmood Hayat on Thursday said the World Bank has agreed to provide financial assistance to the authority in the execution of its various disaster management projects.

The NDMA chairman told APP that the Authority aims at creating an integrated information management system with the assistance of World Bank with reconfigured and trained District Disaster Management Authorities (DDMAs) as fundamental concepts.

He said that National Disaster Risk Management Force, initially comprising of 200 personnel is a part of DDMA projects to be executed by the authority. A working paper has been sent to all the chief ministers, explaining them how to empower and configure DDMAs for appropriate disaster response and risk management.

All of the provincial governments have notified it whereas some have started adopting the proposed system while others are making efforts for the purpose, he added. While commenting on newly elected Prime Minister Imran Khan’s stance to empower local bodies, he said local bodies are critical to the District Disaster Management setups.

Lt. Gen Omar said it was a national level disaster management organization which has only around 150 personnel. Thailand’s disaster management authority alone in Bangkok has 6,500 staff while Turkish disaster management authority AFAD has 10,000 staff working, he said.

He said that the country bore heavy losses during the floods occurred from 1947-2010 of worth $18 billion while from 2010-2018 the damages alone were over $19.5 billion.

If 1/10th of the mentioned amount was invested for disaster risk mitigation measures, we could reduce these huge losses caused by floods, he added.

All of us should be held accountable for our tasks but people should understand the fundamental role of NDMA as most of the criticism in general has been directly made on the authority without understanding that the execution of Disaster Management is a provincial subject, he maintained.

NDMA, he said has developed a proactive approach to mitigate monsoon disaster risks and damages with efficient system. It collects preliminary data with the help of concerned departments based on the weather forecasts indicating monsoon patterns and likely impacts.

The authority then holds a Pre-Monsoon Preparedness Conference to share the forecast of Monsoon Season for making the district administrations, PDMAs and DDMAs aware and preventive measures, he added. In terms of execution process pertaining to Monsoon season NDMA’s role is to issue appropriate advisory to the provinces, he informed.

While answering a question, he said during the 2005 catastrophic earthquake there was no such mechanism to gauge the magnitude of the disaster in the region while the situation remained vague for three to four days.