Punjab Emergency Service (Rescue 1122) commemorated the "National Disaster Awareness Day" on Wednesday to remember the October 8, 2005 earthquake in northern areas of Pakistan. The 2005 earthquake registered a magnitude of 7.6 making it similar in size to the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, the 1935 Quetta earthquake, the 2001 Gujarat earthquake, and the 2009 Sumatra earthquakes.
Director General of Punjab Emergency Service, Dr Rizwan Naseer said that learning lessons from the past tragedies, the establishment of a Land Use and Building Control Authority is need of the hour to ensure safe construction and development of safer cities to avoid such potential disasters in future.
"We should focus on developing our systems to prevent future disasters," he said. In this regard after establishing an integrated emergency services infrastructure must for saving lives and providing the citizens with the right to timely disaster response and care without discrimination, Rescue 1122 is now working for changing minds of the public to establish socially responsible, healthy, safer and more resilient communities.
In this regard, Rescue 1122 is establishing Community Emergency Response Teams at every union council level in all districts. After enrollment, these volunteers are trained for Community Action for Disaster Response (CADRE) and Community Based Disaster Risk Reduction (CBDRR). Thus, Rescue 1122 is working closely with the communities to enhance disaster response capacity, risk reduction and prevention of emergencies for the establishment of safer communities in all districts of Punjab. Furthermore, the service also undertakes evidence based research on the number and nature of emergencies, to recommend measures for prevention of emergencies. This information is then presented before the District Emergency Boards on monthly basis by the district emergency Officers who are also the secretaries of these boards.