Poor are more vulnerable to natural calamities in South Asian countries, said different experts from the regional countries at a two-day regional conference titled “Disaster Response in South Asia – Exploring commonalities, realising joint frameworks” which began at a local hotel here on Tuesday. Organised by the Pakistan Institute of Labour Education and Research (PILER), the speakers of the conference, representing major institutions and the governments of Pakistan, Nepal, India and Bangladesh gave presentations about the threats of natural calamities, especially global warming.
Sindh Minister for Rehabilitation Haji Muzaffar Shujrah was the chief guest at the morning session, whereas the speakers included Delhi Science Forum’s D Raghunandan, University of Karachi Pakistan Studies Department Chairman Dr Jaffar Ahmed, Social Justice and Training Assistant Director Mohammad Shawkat Ali Tutul, COAST Trust Dhaka, Bangladesh, Environment and Climate Change Director Training Charles Pradhan from Nepal, Strengthening Participatory Organization (SPO) Chief Executive Naseer Memon, Dr Kaiser Bengali, senior economist and former advisor to Sindh chief minister on planning and development, Oxfam Pakistan Country Director Arif Jabbar Khan, former Sindh irrigation secretary Idris Rajput, Sindh Agriculture University professor Ismail Kumbhar, Hisaar Foundation CEO Dr Sono Khangrani, and PILER Executive Director Karamat Ali were the main speakers on the first day of the conference. Muzaffar Shujrah said that Karachi was facing multifarious dangers of calamities including tsunami and nuclear disaster due to Karachi Nuclear Power Plant, located in the coastal area.
He said the present government had spent Rs 22 billion on rescue and relief efforts, as well as enabling reconstruction of houses since 2010 floods. The Government of Pakistan and Sindh government have issued Watan Card to the affected people through which cash grants had been provided to them.
SPO CEO Naseer Memon, pointed out that the South Asia region was presently the hotspot of disasters as almost all the major rivers originated from the Himalayan glaciers which were melting at a rapid pace.
Discussing the situation emerging after the consecutive three years of floods in Pakistan, Memon said Japan had the capacity and planning to mitigate the impacts of devastating earthquakes, but governments in South Asian region were incapable of dealing with such emergencies. He said 75 percent of the people in South Asia lived in rural areas, with a majority being poor, and all were vulnerable to face the devastating effects of natural calamities. In addition, 50 percent children from South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) states were malnourished, he added. The government conducted a study 10 years back, which showed that 1.2 million acres of fertile land had come under the sea in Thatta and Badin districts due to climate change. All this happened because the sea level increased in the coastal areas of Pakistan. After that no similar study had been undertaken to ascertain the current status of the coastal areas of the country. On the occasion, Memon also gave an overview of the national disaster management structures in South Asian states. D Raghunandan in his presentation via video conferencing on Skype, said that developed countries were refusing to take necessary in regard to deep emission cuts, and were even refusing to discuss the issues, despite the fact that the United States, Russia, Japan, Australia, and Canada were clearly pushing developing countries to take up the burden under a new agreement. Almost all the South Asian countries had been facing similar errant rainfall pattern changes, which was causing widespread devastation. He linked this change to the changing climate due to human interventions.
Dr Raghunandan further said that since South Asian countries have low water storage capacity, the rising sea level could further affect the water resources. He said India had 60 percent rain-fed areas, and was therefore highly vulnerable to climate variability.