PDMA prepares monsoon contingency plan

PESHAWAR: The Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) has developed a monsoon contingency plan for the current year.

The contingency plan had identified campsites, resource mapping and emergency contact numbers of the relevant stakeholders, including district administration, provincial and federal line departments as well as development partners, said a communique.

PDMA Director General Sharif Hussain said that under the contingency plan, the authority would make efforts to minimize the losses likely to be caused by the natural disasters.

He said the process of Monsoon Contingency Planning was started from the first week of March 2022 by involving all stakeholders.

He said that tools for data collection were developed and shared with all stakeholders including information regarding district/sector specific hazards and vulnerability profile, hazard impact, damage, compensation paid, resource mapping, need assessment and coordination.

The official said Khyber Pakhtunkhwa witnessed a number of extreme climate events due to the impacts of climate change patterns and global warming.

The Monsoon Contingency Plan 2022 gives a detailed view of hazards profile of all the districts vulnerabilities and risks and its index, available and deployed resources, mapping of public and private sector machinery, mechanism of coordination at district, provincial and national level, the type of strategy to be adopted and the formation of control room in case of any emergency situation.

It said that PDMA had dispatched a sufficient quantity of relief items to all the districts of KP and had provided funds to cope with any emergency.

According to the plan, seven districts of the province were ranked as very high-risk districts during the upcoming monsoon, those districts are Upper Chitral, Charsadda, Upper Kohistan, Nowshera, Shangla, Upper Dir and Lower Chitral.

While nine others are ranked as high-risk districts including Tank, Malakand, Dera Ismail Khan, Swat, Lower Dir, Torghar, Lower Kohistan, Kohistan (Pattan) and Peshawar.

The PDMA has installed flood Early Warning System in the upper catchment areas on seven critical points at Swat River on Khwazakhela, River Swat on Chakdara Bridge, Panjkora River at Jabalot Bridge Unkor UC Bibyawar, Upper Dir, Munda Head Works, Abazai, Kalpani River, Mardan Ring Road Bridge, rivers/nallahs to monitor water level and generate early warning intimation in order to protect the human losses.

PDMA remains active round the clock (24/7) with free of charge emergency helpline 1700.

Spokesperson PDMA Taimur Ali said PDMA had identified 184 sites for establishment of relief camps across the province in consultation with district administrations.

In case of emergency, these camps will be used as shelter for people displaced in wake of disasters. After identification of the potential campsites, PDMA has also carried out GIS-based mapping of these sites and its dissemination to all relevant stakeholders.