Lieutenant General Omar Mahmood Hayat, Chairman National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) has said that an effective disaster management mechanism is a touchstone of good governance of a country. He stated this in his closing remarks of National Monsoon Preparedness Conferences-2018 in Islamabad on Thursday.
Chairman NDMA has said that core purpose of all state institutions was serving its citizen and disaster management is aimed at ensuring the protection of life and properties during the times of stress and disaster. "This is how we can serve the humanity and establish our credibility as a state institution", he emphasized.
While underlining the importance of understanding Disaster Management in global climate change perspective he said that conventional Disaster Management practices were necessary but real challenge lied in social adaptation according to shifting weather patterns and coping with its impacts.
National Monsoon Preparedness Conferences 2018 was aimed at reviewing the state of preparedness at federal, provincial/regional and up to district levels to cope up with the forthcoming Monsoon rains and to harmonize all related provincial and departmental plans with respect to flood prevention, rescue, relief and post flood rehabilitation measure if necessary. Conference was chaired by Chairman NDMA Lieutenant General Omar Mahmood Hayat.
Senior representatives of various federal ministries and departments like, Communication, Water Resources, Railways, Armed Forces, CDA, SUPARCO, NESPAK, provincial Irrigation Departments, Provincial /Regional Disaster Management Authorities, Pakistan Red Crescent (PRC), UN agencies, Pakistan Boys Scouts Association, Pakistan Girls Guide Association participated in the conference.
While presenting Monsoon Outlook-2018, PMD forecasted likelihood of normal to above normal rainfall during first half of the Monsoon-2018 while normal to less than normal rainfall during second half of August to September. However, report stated that some extreme localized rainfall events are likely to occur in some parts of northern Punjab and K.P.K which may cause localized flash flooding in mountainous regions.
Representative of all provincial/regional Disaster Management Authorities shared the nature of hazard and vulnerabilities faced in their respective provinces/regions and state of their preparedness and prevention measures put in place to cope up with these vulnerabilities.
They also share the details of available rescue equipment as well as rehabilitations and relief stocks in their warehouses for the emergencies. FFC presented policy for dams' management and province wise vulnerable points that needed special attention, NHA shared progress on preparatory efforts undertaken for various National Highways with focus on KKH, Gilgit-Skardu Road, Dir-Chitral Road, Rawalpindi-Murree-Muzaffarabad Road, Manshera-Naran Road. UNOCHA shared resource capacities of UN agencies across Pakistan coordination mechanism.
Member Operations NDMA Brigadier Mukhtar Ahmed presented salient of Floods Preparedness Plan-2018. Based on PMD's weather forecast for Monsoon Season-2018 he shared detailed contingency plan with the participants and reviewed the state of preparedness. From past experiences, he critically evaluated and identified the limitations and inadequacies and emphasized for a better response during upcoming Monsoon by all stakeholders.-PR
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