Chairman National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), Dr Zafar Iqbal Qadar said on Wednesday said that authority has devised a long-term plan for ten years to minimise disaster risks. He further informed that National Policy of Disaster Risk Reduction was also be finalised very soon to formal execute to cope with disasters and interlinked issues.
"We are lacking professional disaster managers to effectively prepare and more importantly manage manmade and natural disasters", he acknowledged while addressing at inaugural session of two-day national exhibition on Disaster Management here at University of Peshawar.
The fourth-National Disaster Management Exhibition organised by Centre for Disaster Preparedness and Management (CDPM) University of Peshawar in collaboration with AFC-International and Pakistan Science Foundation, which was continued for two days. More than 51 stalls were set up by the different the national and international institutions, and organisations, including the UN Habitat, United Nations World Food Programme, Fata Disaster Management Authority, Unicef, and various local and international NGO`s dealing with disaster management.
The Director CDPM Professor Dr Amir Nawaz Khan, Dean Faculty of Numerical and Physical Sciences Professor Dr Muhammad Riaz, Country Director ACF International Onno Van Manen, Registrar Dr Syed Fazli Hadi, Dean Faculty of Arts and Humanities Professor Dr Farooq Swati and good number of students were present on the occasion.
Dr Zafar Qadar further said that the event was a great initiative in bringing disasters managers together to think and work for formulating a strategy for better disaster control, while speaking at inaugural session. He informed that NDMA had been adopting Malaysian model of disasters preparedness and mitigation as a national policy. He further said that the National Policy of Disaster Risk Reduction was in the final stage of approval, besides the NDMA has prepared a ten year plan for DRR as well, he added.
Dr Iqbal added, in order to address the scarcity of resource gaps and trained man power, the government is establishing disaster management institutions at the district level and for this purpose we are linking rescue 1122, CDPM with volunteer and social activities in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Chairman NDMA said the government is also introducing the Disaster Risk Insurance for the entire population which would cover compensation to individuals for their losses in cases of untoward happenings. The move was being taken to ensure systemic institutional response to disasters, he added.
He took pride in informing that Pakistan is the first country to have come up with such policies and solutions for its countrymen, and as, the most experienced country in disasters. The mechanism develop has been made on the formula of one disaster manager per hundred population and resultantly would generate 1.8 million jobs for the Pakistani youth in the government and non-governmental organisations in the near future.
Zafar Iqbal praised the efforts of Centre for Disaster Preparedness and Management for organising the mega event and ensured providing employment for the successful pass out graduates of the centre. Earlier Director CDPM Professor Dr Amir Nawaz Khan also addressed the ceremony. Later, Dr Zafar Iqbal formally inaugurated the two-day national exhibition and visited different stalls.