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Consultative workshop held on Natural Disaster Management

By Zahiruddin

CHITRAL: The speakers in a consultative workshop on disaster management plan for Chitral here on Tuesday, called for formulation of disaster management plan for the district keeping in view of its vulnerability to the natural hazards due to its geographical position in the belt of Hindukush range. They said that a large scale of destruction of life and property took place in the district over the years and many valleys have been rendered highly endangered where no more human settlements are possible. They said that avalanches, mud-sliding, land-sliding, heavy snowfall, outburst of glaciers and lakes and flash floods pose threat to the people which will continue to repeat themselves causing destruction in large scale. They said that it is impossible to stop disasters to occur but their affects can be mitigated to a large extent by proper planning and management of resources and mobilization of community. Expressing their disappointment, they said that the policy makers are still reluctant to dedicate appropriate resources to the disaster preparedness in Pakistan while it poses a significant and growing threat to development. They recommended introduction of school-based disaster risk management for students and teachers and promotion of hazard resilient constructions. They also called for introduction of features in schools for their use as emergency relief shelters. They said that disaster risk management should be included into environmental impact assessment for all new development projects and take action to address environmental hazards such as degradation of environment. The mitigation of work to reduce risk such as structural mitigation and forestation should be undertaken, they said. The speakers also stressed on the need of taking into account the vulnerable groups and ensure that their rights and needs are met before, during and after a disaster. District nazim Maghfirat Shah, tehsil nazim Sartaj Ahmed Khan, regional project manager of FOCUS, programme manager Samina Sardar, programme officer Wali Mohammad, leading educationist Islamuddin spoke on the occasion. The consultative workshop was arranged by Focus Humanitarian Assistance to evolve a district disaster management plan for the district. The stakeholders including civil society organizations and the district heads of all the provincial government departments and the commandant of Chitral Scouts participated the workshop.