NDMA has no disaster policy, admits chairman

The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) chairman on Tuesday admitted before the Senate that no national disaster policy had been drafted to prepare for floods this year.
He also claimed Sindh’s provincial government had hampered rescue and relief operations by seeking control of the distribution of essential items amongst flood victims.
NDMA Chairman Dr Zafar Qadir said, “The provincial government objected to a NDMA-led rescue and relief operation, terming it a violation of provincial autonomy. Now the NDMA is supplying essential items to the provincial government which distributes them among affected people through district administrations.” He said the demand for tents and temporary shelters was increasing each day as flood water was not receding and stagnant water posed a threat to standing houses. He said the NDMA had estimated that a million tents would be needed in coming days.
No disaster policy, no meeting: Intervening, Senate Chairman Farooq Naek asked the NDMA chairman to explain why the NDMA, mandated by an act of the parliament to formulate a coherent strategy to manage natural disasters, had failed to do its job? He also asked the NDMA chairman to outline the national disaster policy and brief the Senate if the National Disaster Management Commission had met prior to the flooding.
Responding to the query, the NDMA chairman admitted that no national disaster policy or coherent of plan action existed since floods of this magnitude had not been predicted. He also said the National Disaster Management Commission had not met before the floods.
No volunteers working for NDMA: Naek further asked the NDMA chairman to detail how many people were trained by National Institute of Disaster Management (which falls under the NDMA) last year and the number of volunteers it had.
Responding to the query, Qadir said no volunteers were working with the NDMA and only a few Provincial Disaster Management Authority and District Disaster Management Authority officials had been trained.
Naek further asked Qadir that whether the NDMA has raised a National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) as it had been authorized to by the NDMA Act. Qadir replied in the negative, stating no NDRF had been created since the NDMA did not possess the funds to create it.
Earlier an official source in the United Nations confided to Pakistan Today that NDMA is responsible for escalating the losses caused by the flooding in Sindh and converting the situation into a disaster as it did not let the world humanitarian assistance intervene into the crisis until the president and the prime minister took notice of the situation.
“We were cognizant of the fact that the NDMA will not be able to cope with the disaster, so we offered our assistance in the initial days of flood in the province, but the NDMA told us to stay away and did not let us intervene into the crisis,” the official said, adding that the delay let the Sindh flood convert into a disaster.