The Department of Sociology, University of Peshawar, in collaboration with the German Technical Co-operation (GTZ) organised a seminar on preparation for the establishment of Disaster Management Centre (DMC) and introduction of Disaster Management Studies (DMS) in the university.
A large number of students and teachers of the department attended the seminar while German expert on the DMC and Director of the Disaster Research Centre, German University of Kiel, Christian Muller and Professor Wolf Dombrowsky presented papers.
The DMC experts said that the purpose of the seminar was to explore ideas about the need of the establishment of the centre to cope with the challenges of any probable disaster in future and seek suggestions regarding the preparation of the course for the proposed degree in the university.
"The government of Pakistan has started working on setting up the DMC and the provincial centre is likely to be operational from next month," Christian Muller told reporters. He said that the education in discipline of Disaster Risk Management and Disaster Management Cell of the University would help generate trained manpower for the centre that would work to mitigate the chances of destruction from any future disaster.
The University of Peshawar has developed a comprehensive concept for disaster management studies and establishment of a DMC. Also a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) has been signed with the GTZ supported Disaster Preparedness and Management Project (DPMP) and with the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) for technical assistance.
A two-day seminar on disaster preparedness and management for university staff and students had already been held last month. Presently, a series of one-day seminars by different departments are to be held in this connection.
Further, it was told in the seminar that the departments of Psychology Sociology, Anthropology and Social Work, economics, geography, urban/regional, planning, journalism, geology and environmental sciences, management sciences and medicines will also hold similar seminars.-PR