Future disasters like recent floods will have to be pre-emptively managed and avoided by building capacity of local administrations and infrastructures.

These views were expressed by climate and strategic experts at a dialogue titled “Managing Natural Disasters in Pakistan” arranged at the Centre for Strategic Perspectives (CSP) of the Institute of Strategic Studies Islamabad (ISSI), according to a press release received by WealthPK.

The aim of the dialogue was to raise awareness about climate vulnerability and possible solutions.

In her opening remarks, Director of CSP Dr Neelum Nigar noted that over the years, Pakistan had experienced natural disasters that grew into humanitarian crises, while the current massive torrential rain and flood crisis had threatened the food security of 220 million people and caused significant damage to life and property.

In his remarks of welcome, Director General of ISSI Ambassador Aizaz Chaudhry stated that the seminar was part of a series of activities on climate change, natural disasters, the water problem, and other urgent topics. “Climate change has become an existential threat to Pakistan. Keeping in view its relevance, one of the five segments of Islamabad Conclave, the flagship event of ISSI to be held next month, was dedicated to climate change.”

He said, “Pakistan issued a call for donations after the floods of 2010, and the international community raised enormous sums of money to support rescue and recovery efforts. Ten years later, we again experienced terrible floods, and the international community is still helping us raise money.”

He continued by saying that the donations made in response to the UN flash flood appeal did not match the level of destruction on the ground. “I don't want to point the finger at anyone, but the economic crisis brought on by the Ukraine crisis has led to price increases and supply chain problems all over the world. I think it’s important for us to improve our preparedness for and resilience to disasters. Every dollar received for disaster relief and assistance in Pakistan should go towards developing technical capability for disaster management.”

The ISSI DG emphasised that a number of experts in disaster preparedness and management should be employed by different think tanks, and that they should be given the chance to advise policymakers so that they could make well-informed decisions and come up with creative solutions to the problem.

Idris Mehsud, a member of the National Disaster Management Authority’s (NDMA) Disaster Risk Reduction Committee, stated in his speech that in Pakistan, in addition to hydro-meteorological hazards, the country also faced geophysical threats that were more severe and had an immediate impact, while floods and climate change were slow-moving disasters that took longer to draw attention.

He said, “it’s the second case with extreme flooding that were never seen before, and it’s the worst in recorded history. The main concern is whether or not we are ready to ensure risk management and mitigation. After the 2005 earthquake, Pakistan discovered how to develop a comprehensive disaster management system.”

Mehsud claimed that the enormous floods of 2022 were a synthesis of various flooding patterns, including those of 2010, 2011, and previous years. More than two million homes were damaged, and there was widespread devastation.

He added, “the government is supporting the relief effort for the recent floods since supplies from nine strategically located NDMA warehouses, which can feed 300,000 people, are being controlled through public resources.”

Secretary of the National Security Division Engineer Amir Hasan stated that the prevailing political turmoil has also resulted in less coverage of floods in the mainstream media. However, he continued, communities that were not prepared for floods suffered significant losses of all kinds, and communities that were not equipped for major climatic disasters are experiencing severe humanitarian crises.

He said, “in the flood-affected areas, a large size of farmland is submerged, completely damaging crops that were ready to be harvested. Furthermore, the top international organisations have issued warnings about rising levels of poverty as the aftermath of the floods created a significant crisis in food security. The nation also has the greatest rate of malnutrition, and because of supply line disruptions, it will increase further in this area.”

The 2022 floods were and should be a wake-up call for the nation, and it should be guaranteed that lessons are learned from it, according to former Lead Disaster Risk Management, World Bank Specialist Raja Rehan Arshad at the panel discussion on disaster management in the country.

To ensure disaster resilience, “we need to take stock of our institutional, policy, and regulatory environment and create institutional management or build up.”

He said, “disaster risk reduction must involve non-state players like NGOs and civil society, but risk identification or assessment is a difficult process that should be carried out at the central, national, or regional level.”

Dr Imran Khalid, Director of Governance and Policy at WWF-Pakistan, spoke at length about the institutional and policymaking capacities needed to deal with the catastrophic effects of climate change.

According to SDPI Senior Research Associate Maryam Shabbir Abbasi, migration caused by the environment was already occurring in Pakistan and around the world for economic reasons. “The climate migrants will boost rivalry between residents and migrants and increase demand on natural resources. The worst thing is that we don’t have any homework done at the local, national, or worldwide levels for partnerships and collaborations.”

Ammar Rashid, a senior researcher at Heartlife, also spoke on catastrophe preparedness and management strategies.

Credit : Independent News Pakistan-WealthPk