National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) Chairman Maj-Gen Asghar Nawaz has said that climate change posed a real threat; hence it was need of the hour to further strengthen coordination mechanism amongst all stakeholders to ensure better preparedness.
He made these remarks while presiding over a National Post Monsoon 2016 Review Conference held here on Tuesday. The NDMA chairman reiterated that the aim of such conferences was to identify the gaps, record the lessons learnt and to devise most appropriate strategy for future.
He appreciated the collaborative role of various federal and provincial departments to mitigate the flood threat during monsoon season 2016.
During the conference, structured presentations were given by the representatives of all the provincial and regional disaster management authorities, Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD), Federal Flood Commission (FFC), National Highway Authority (NHA) and representatives of Tarbela Dam and Mangla Dam authorities, WAPDA, SUPARCO and Engineers Directorate, GHQ.
The chairman highlighted that notwithstanding resource constraints and challenges thereof, a concerted as well as coordinated proactive response was much warranted to thwart the effects of flood disasters.
He also emphasised the need for up-gradation of the capability of Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD). He observed that paucity of train human resources was a major concern and capacity building up to district and union council level was direly needed to cope up with emergency situations.
He specifically emphasised that response must be configured according to degree of vulnerability for optimum utilization of resources, improvement in response to urban flooding in major city centers, rationalization of requirement of rescue equipment at district level by taking into account equipment held by army and provinces, completion of flood protection work before June 2017, standardizations of reporting format and creations of synergy in relief/rescue efforts.