The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) is going to ask the government to call a meeting of the National Disaster Management Commission and discuss with donors situational strengthening of the NDMA to deal with future disasters, its capacity constraints and regular funding in order to make it more efficient along modern lines. “We want this meeting to take place in the first week of November and we will also demand that a regular funding for the NDMA be taken into account in the meeting as well, as there is no regular funding available to the NDMA for disaster management,” said NDMA spokesman Ahmed Kamal, who is also a member of the Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR).
When asked if any body of experts as deemed under the NDMA Act had been formed by the government, Kamal said that no such body existed in the country so far and the matter was also likely to be discussed in the meeting of the commission. The NDMA needs full implementation of the act of parliament whereby it came into being in late 2010 after the expiry of the ordinance in March of the previous year. The NDMA chairman had conceded in his briefings in the Senate that damage control would have been possible if the NDMA Act had been implemented in full, but it needed substantial resources.
FULL IMPLEMENTATION: NDMA Chairman Dr Zafar Qadir had told Pakistan Today on the sidelines of the press conference on Saturday that the NDMA Act needed full implementation. “We want all existing departments dealing with emergency situations in the country to be reorganised and act as a whole in the time of disaster, but it needs a coherent plan and we will soon forward recommendations to the government in this regard,” Qadir said. The recommendations he referred to were partly about the implementation of the NDMA Act, and they are also likely to be discussed in the meeting of the National Disaster Management Commission.
Qadir had said that the NDMA was preparing a Disaster Reduction and Management Policy and raise a Disaster Response Force (DRF) in the country to ensure preparedness for prompt and quick response to any future disasters in the country, and that the policy would include the disaster risk profile of each district. These were vital parts of the NDMA Act and are likely to be discussed in the meeting as well.
