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Thursday March 28, 2024

‘Empowering mountain communities with resources must for climate-resilience’

By Our Correspondent
August 18, 2020

Islamabad:Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Climate Change, Malik Amin Aslam, said that lives and livelihoods of mountain communities in Pakistan's north are grappled with growing risk of flash floods and glacial lake outburst floods due to rapidly melting glaciers, according to press release issued here on Monday.

However, "protecting the lives and livelihoods of mountain communities, most of them living in abject poverty conditions, is top priority of the present government", he told participants at a the handing-over ceremony of the high-tech modern equipment used for the disaster risk management in the mountain areas. These equipments will be deployed at the District Emergency Response Centre (DERC) of the Gilgit-Baltistan Disaster Management Authority (GBDMA) and used to help boost disaster resilience and preparedness of the mountain communities in Gilgit-Baltistan. Held at Shigar area of Gigit-Baltistan here on Monday, the ceremony was organised by the United Nations Development Programme in collaboration with Ministry of Climate Change under the Glacial Lake Outburst Floods (GLOF-II), which was attended by representatives from government and non-governmental organizations and local community representatives.

The DERC equipment was formally handed over to Wali Khan, the Director General, Gilgit-Baltistan Disaster Management Authority (GBDMA), who said that access to advanced technologies and financial resources provided by the climate chsnge ministry would help mitigate vulnerabilities of the mountain communities. Addressing the ceremony, Wali Khan also thanked the Ministry of Climate Change and UNDP for their timely support for streamlining the communication system of GBDMA and District Disaster Management Authorities (DDMAs) in any unforeseen situation. The Director General GBDMA mentioned that GB is a backward area, having no connection to far-flung areas. "However, with the support of communication equipment, the District Administrations and DDMAs will be better positioned to respond and coordinate. Furthermore, he requested the chief guest for further strengthening of GBDMA and DDMAs through the provision of heavy machineries," the Director General, Gilgit-Baltistan Disaster Management Authority told the participants. Mr. Malik Amin Aslam also thanked and lauded all the stakeholders of GB for their keen interest in GLOF-II project interventions focisedbon resilience and food security building. The SAPM further mentioned that he has personally visited most of the vulnerable/ project areas and met both direct and indirect beneficiaries, where the project can play its vital role in minimising the risk from Glacial Lake Outburst Floods (GLOFs). He further mentioned that the project is spending a total of approx. Rs6.2 billion (with a breakdown of 1.6 to the communities, 3.5 billion for equipment and 1.1 billion for institution capacity building) in Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP). This funding shall take place over the span of 5 years, where 24 valleys will be targeted. Malik Amin also mentioned that through GLOF-II Project, each vulnerable community will receive the GLOF Disaster Fund of $50,000 in order to respond to any unforeseen Climate change-induced disasters.

Total of 1,000,000 population of KP and GB will be directly benefiting from the Project interventions, out of which, 50% is female population, he added. Mr. Malik Amin Aslam remarked that: “I am optimistic that the DERC equipment will strengthen the capacities of GBDMA at District and Tehsil level to deal with any disaster situation with full zeal and zest.” Later, the attendees to the ceremony further proceeded to view the showcased DERC equipments. which included: communication equipment, rescue and response items (which includes boats, backup power supply, IT equipment and communication items). The aim of providing this equipment to GBDMA/Home Department is to strengthen their capacity to deal with any disasters across GB, Malik Amin concluded.