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International Disaster Day held in Chitral

By Zahiruddin

CHITRAL: Focus Humanitarian Assistance (FOCUS) is playing a vital role in preparing the people for disaster management to mitigate the after-effects of the natural disasters, the speakers said in a seminar held here on Wednesday in connection with Disaster Day. The speakers included DCO Chitral Mutasim Billah Shah, renowned scholar Dr. Inayatullah Faizi, regional programme manager of FOCUS Amir Mohammad Khan and others. They said that the district disaster management plan (DDMP) is on the anvil for the district which is vulnerable to a number of natural hazards like flash flood, land sliding, earthquake, soil erosion and high flood in the rivers which inundated the villages in the summer. They said that the DDMP is being formulated after detailed deliberations with all the leading institutions and all segments of society in the district to make it viable and practicable. They said that the action plan will be unveiled shortly and all the resources will be utilized to translate it into action in real terms. They said that emphasis had been laid in the plan to create awareness and sense of responsibility in the people to use the local resources to cope with the situation. The speakers in their papers discussed in detail various natures of natural hazards and their possible repercussions on the local people and geography. They enumerated some of the man-made causes of the disasters like deforestation, overgrazing in the pastures and others which act as catalyst to cause soil erosion and flash floods which play havoc with human settlements. Chitral DCO was of the view that the natural hazards were the consequence of misdeeds and sins committed by the population of an area and the occurrence of the disasters are meant to intimidate the people for their sins. He said that corruption, degradation of moral values and social injustice are also hazards which act for the disaster of a society.