Daily Times

PESHAWAR: The provincial capital remained on high alert keeping in view the possibility of early monsoon floods, as the Provincial Disaster Management Authority declared Peshawar as one of the most vulnerable districts of the province on Sunday.

The Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) has drafted a contingency plan, which categorises areas at risk of floods as most vulnerable, moderately vulnerable and least vulnerable.

Peshawar was placed in the most vulnerable districts category along with nine other districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa such as Charsadda, Nowshera, Dera Ismail Khan, Chitral, Swat, Shangla, Dir Lower, Kohistan Upper and Kohistan Lower.

A number of districts were listed as moderately and least vulnerable as per the PDMA profiling. Although at risk, these districts are less prone to monsoon rains this year.

Beside the district contingency plan of the PDMA, the Provincial Reconstruction, Rehabilitation and Settlement Authority (PaRRSA) has mapped the most vulnerable and at-risk union councils in the provincial capital.

The data provided by the PDMA shows that 24 union councils of the provincial capital having a population of 858,098 are at high risk of floods during the monsoon.

On the basis of the data of super floods of 2010 and the following years, the PDMA has categorised the districts according to the level of their vulnerability for the year 2016.

The PaRRSA collected and verified the data and the damages caused by the rain and thunderstorm in the capital. Five people were killed and four injured critically, while three houses were damaged in rain-related incidents in June alone.

Official of the Training and Awareness Cell of the PDMA told Daily Time that PDMA and private sector organisations should collaborate to prepare a pre-and-post disaster plan to deal with any emergency situation in the province. The provincial government and private sector emergency response teams should also keep a track of the vulnerable areas, especially most vulnerable districts of the province.

According to an official of the PDMA, floods are on the rise over the last couple of years because of the changing weather patterns and their consequences are disastrous due to the absence of any viable local warning system. He said that flash floods washed away five villages completely in Chitral because there was no local warning system.

Social activist Aftab Alam Khan told Daily Times that emergency, risk and disaster management placards, booklets, ads and manuals should be prepared and distributed to people in vulnerable areas through local council representatives. He said that timely information could help save a lot of people.