Earthquakes, floods: 'permanent institutional framework needed'

A permanent institutional framework fully capable of undertaking operations at bigger level in case of emergencies like earthquakes and floods is needed at national level. This was view of speakers at three-day international conference on risk management, which started here on Saturday.
The Chairman Earthquake Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Authority (Erra) welcomed the participants and expressed confidence that the deliberations would help Pakistan to learn more about the earthquake risk management. Altaf Saleem said after the October 8 calamity, which brought about gigantic devastation in the country.
The government of Pakistan swiftly moved with the help of the people of Pakistan and the international community and launched a great relief operation, and as a result all educational institutions and health facilities are functional and community life has come closer to normalcy.
He said the strategy to provide cash grants for sustaining households and house building proved successful in steering the society towards socio-economic stability in a short period of time. He said the next step was to move towards permanent and sustainable reconstruction and rehabilitation of the affected areas, with the aim to 'Build Back Better' in terms of physical infrastructure, size and scope of activities, and the quality of services to the people.
Speaking on the occasion, Deputy Chairman Erra Lieutenant General Nadeem Ahmad highlighted the aims and objectives of the Conference. He said through this conference Erra would share the experiences it gained and the lessons it learnt in the process of reconstruction and rehabilitation in the quake hit areas of Pakistan with the international community.
He invited criticism, comments, suggestions and input from the experts for the further improvement of the implementation process. The input from the experts, he said would be utilised into the long term Disaster Risk Management framework of the country.
Recalling the devastation's caused due to 10/8 earthquake, Lieutenant General Nadeem Ahmad said there was no institutional structure that could help meet a high magnitude disaster, and the only institutional arrangements available at that time was to cope with small scale calamities.