‘Sindh gearing up for natural disasters’

KARACHI – The Sindh government has started various projects to meet the challenges of natural disasters like earthquakes, floods and droughts in the country and the formation of the Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) is part of these efforts, Adviser to Sindh Chief Minister on Information Sharmila Farooqui said on Wednesday. She said that the country, particularly Karachi, faces the risk of natural calamities like earthquakes and cyclones, however, the government is preparing to tackle such disasters, she said in a statement.
The PDMA has successfully tackled natural disasters including cyclone Phet and the floods in Sindh, but there is a need to expand its scope of operations for tackling manmade disasters like fires, building collapses and bomb blasts.
“The role of civil society, NGOs and environment organisations is also mandatory in this regard,” she added. She said that the federal and provincial environment ministries of the country are working in collaboration with civil society and environment organisations such as the WWF-Pakistan and the IUCN to protect nature and meet the challenges of natural disasters. She said that the earthquake of 2005 and the recent floods have taught us a lesson to be prepared to tackle natural calamities. Farooqui asked the media to raise awareness among people about natural calamities and precautionary measures. “There are two kinds of disasters -natural and manmade.
Natural disasters can be more dangerous as they are uncontrolled, but the losses can be reduced by taking precautionary measures. Manmade disasters can be controlled by devising safety plans on modern lines,” she explained. “Swift action is needed to save humanity from natural calamities and to achieve this goal, coordination among government departments, particularly the Health and Environment departments, is mandatory,” she said.
Farooqui said that the recent devastating floods had affected about seven million people in Sindh and 30 percent among them were children. She said that the floods affected 8,422 schools, out of which 2,681 were fully damaged, 2,784 partially damaged and 2,957 converted into relief camps.
The education of 700,000 children in seven districts of the province – Kamber, Jacobabad, Jamshoro, Kashmore, Shikarpur and Dadu – was affected, but educational activities have resumed in these areas, she concluded.