National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) held a consultative meeting here on Saturday to review different matters relating to the Regional Glacial Lake Outburst Floods (GLOFs) Risk Mitigation project, which is being implemented in the Himalayan region.
The one-day meeting was attended by all stakeholders including UNDP Pakistan Crisis Prevention and Recovery Unit and representatives of government departments, private sector, non-governmental organisations, academic institutions and various other stakeholders.
Addressing the opening ceremony, Shaukat Nawaz Tahir, Senior Member National Disaster Management Authority said that the authority would extend all out support to stakeholders of project, to make it success. He said that National Disaster Management Authority was taking concrete steps to counter natural disasters in the Northern Areas and asked the partners to present workable proposals to make these efforts more effective.
He said that the participants should focus on non-structural community based risk mitigation measures related to GLOFs and finding of the baseline assessment study conducted in Gojal Hunza (Passu and Ghulkin Glaciers and adjacent communities).
Marvi Memon, MNA said that stakeholders should come with effective proposals, given the local environment to effectively achieve targets of the project. She said that regional network should be established to promote holistic approaches to GLOF risk reduction and for this purpose, she added, national agencies should extend support by developing projects aimed at GLOF risk reduction.
Asaka Tomkimoto, UNDP Environment Unit's official underlined the need for taking concrete steps to enhance the understanding of social and economic risk associated with GLOFs. Other participants said that risk reduction efforts around GLOFs have been focussed on hydrological and geo-technical engineered solutions.
They said non-structural risk reduction measures such as appropriate early warning systems, awareness measures, co-ordinated preparedness and land use planning and community-based risk mitigation and preparedness approaches have not found much practice in areas affected by GLOFs.
They said that hazards in the region are bound into a delicate relationship of cause and effect and together combine to increase risk in the region is also not sufficiently addressed. Amber Masud, Project Support Officer said the main objective of the project is to enhance the understanding of social and economic risks associated with GLOFs, besides exploring community based approaches for minimising the impact of GLOF events.
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