Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) Chairman, Lieutenant General Omar Mahmood Hayat, on Thursday, said that the World Bank (WB) agreed to provide financial assistance to the authority and it would go towards the execution of its various disaster management projects.

The NDMA chairman told APP that with the help of WB, the authority aimed to create an integrated information management system.

He said that the National Disaster Risk Management Force, initially comprising of 200 personnel, was part of District Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) projects to be executed by the authority. “A working paper has been sent to all the chief ministers, explaining to them the workings of DDMAs for appropriate disaster response and risk management,” Hayat said.

He added, “All provincial governments have notified about these measures and some have even started adopting the proposed system.”

While commenting on Prime Minister Imran Khan’s stance to empower local bodies, he said that the local bodies were critical to the DDMA setups.

Hayat further said that Pakistan was the only country where the national level disaster management organisation employed only 150 personnel. “Thailand’s disaster management authority has a staff of 6,500 personnel while the Turkish authority has a 10,000 personnel staff,” he added. He said that the country bore losses worth $18 billion during the floods from 1947-2010 while from 2010-2018 the damages were worth over $19.5 billion.

“If 1/10 of the mentioned amount was invested for disaster risk mitigation measures, we could reduce these huge losses caused by floods,” he added.

According to Hayat, the NDMA developed a proactive approach to mitigate monsoon disaster risks and damages with an efficient system.

“NDMA collects preliminary data with the help of concerned departments based on the weather forecasts indicating monsoon patterns and likely impacts,” he explained. “The authority then holds a Pre-Monsoon Preparedness Conference to share the forecast of the monsoon season for making the district administrations, PDMAs and DDMAs aware,” he added.

Published in Daily Times, August 31^st 2018.