'Pakistan lacks mechanism for internalising assessment of disaster management'

Despite the fact that Pakistan's geographical location, diverse landscape and climatic conditions makes it prone to natural calamities like floods, droughts, earthquakes, landslides, tsunamis and cyclones, it is still having no mechanism for internalising assessment of development needs and building long-term capacity for disaster management.
This was revealed in a paper on 'Peace and Sustainable Development in South Asia," issued by Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI) here on Tuesday.
Paper says that development or lack thereof is entwined with the effects a disaster inflicts in its realm. History proves that less developed nations are more susceptible to losses due to hazards as compared to industrialised nations. More than 95 percent of all disaster related deaths take place in developing countries and losses incurred are 20 times higher on an average, than in the developed countries.
Paper further revealed that the excessive damage from natural disasters in the developing world is in large part attributable to the lack of resources, incoherent disaster management plans, lack of institutionalisation of management mechanisms, inadequate implementation of various disaster related policies and most importantly unsustainable development practices that leave both infrastructure as well as local communities vulnerable to disasters.
Pakistan has not taken serious interest in incorporating disaster management into its development plans. The countries national five-year development plans have paid little attention to disaster management, paper says.
The devastating earthquake that hit Pakistan in October 2005 exposed the country's lack of preparedness to deal with a major natural calamity. The existing structure for disaster response could do little to provide an answer to the massive devastation caused by the seismic activities.
Almost every year the country has to deal with some type of natural hazard. The northern parts of the country and the western province of Balochistan have a history of a regular seismic activity, while floods make regular appearances in Punjab and Sindh.
The high incidence of natural disasters necessitates that the country's development pattern takes into account disaster management. It also highlights the need for a robust institutionalised framework for disaster prevention, mitigation and recovery. The disaster management set-up remains unprepared to handle any major natural disaster in the future. There are a number of major shortcomings in the institutional framework for disaster management. There is an acute dearth of professional expertise in disaster related institutions. The need to enhance such expertise, which is crucial to an effective disaster management programme, has also been continuously overlooked.
Moreover, the attention of the disaster agencies primarily remains on post-disaster relief and assistance. Prevention and mitigation through concentrated development initiatives is still a far cry from present set-up. Another major concern is that the entire disaster management emphasis, even in post-disaster situations, remains on floods. No disaster management agency or framework has even bothered to incorporate the potential for calamities other than floods.
On the governance front lack of inter-tier co-ordination is a major issue. Similarly, there is lack of any institutionalised information dissemination protocol, which involves educating communities on the potential dangers of unsustainable resource use, inhabiting areas prone to disaster or on dangerous construction practices.