Raising concerns over the existence of two organisations with a similar mandate, the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) has advised the government to scrape the Earthquake Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Authority (ERRA). In its report presented in the National Assembly last week, the NDMA said the recently promulgated ERRA Act had created an ‘institutional anomaly’ between it and ERRA, as both share the same responsibilities regarding earthquakes. “It may be recalled that ERRA was created as a time-bound organisation for reconstruction in the nine affected districts after the 2005 earthquake, thereafter it had to be dissolved. Continuation of ERRA beyond its original mandate does not make sense as the government can ill afford a huge organisation in the waiting for a disaster which may or may not happen,” the NDMA argued.
It also lamented the provincial governments for its lack of support for the disaster management system. “At the federal level the system enjoys political support, but at the provincial level the situation is not encouraging. The fact that the meetings of Provincial Disaster Management Committees (PDMCs) in Punjab, Sindh and Balochistan have not been convened, reflects a lack of political support to the disaster management system, leading to ad hoc policies to deal with disaster situations with a ‘fire-fighting’ approach which undermines the evolutionary process of the newly established system,” the report said. According to the report, the existence of parallel laws and a duality of institutional responsibilities were creating confusion and sometimes even restricted the newly established bodies to assume lead roles. It said that at the federal level, disaster relief was assigned to the Cabinet Division under Rules of Business, while at the provincial level the PDMAs operate under Relief Commissionerates established under the Calamities Act, 1958.
On lack of capacity and financial resources, the report criticised the development policies for not including disaster risk reduction in sustainable socio-economic development, saying the required resources were not allocated which led to insufficient organisational capacity. “It is pertinent to mention that the existing organisational capacity of NDMA was hardly enough to carry out its pre-disaster activities effectively. During the period of floods, there was an increasing demand and pressure on the NDMA to deliver on real time basis. However, limited capacity both in terms of professional and technical staff and required financial resources proved to be a major challenge, limiting the NDMA’s capacity to respond effectively to an exceptionally large level of natural disaster,” the report said.
It also pointed out the lack of understanding about the role of NDMA. “Contrary to the fact that the NDMA is an apex body mandated to implement, coordinate and monitor disaster management activities in the country, there was a common perception not only in general public but also within the media fraternity and even provincial governments that the NDMA should spearhead relief and recovery operations everywhere in the country and provide all the resources. Though a number of federal, provincial and local level institutions, solely responsible to manage the catastrophe, were already in place, yet the NDMA was expected to deliver on every count,” the report said.
“Moreover, status quo syndrome remains one of the major stumbling blocks in the performance of the new system. The federal ministries and departments as well as the provincial governments tend to deal with disasters in traditional knee jerk emergency oriented approach. Moreover, there is negligible investment in DRM institutions, both by the government as well as the donors, resulting in poor/absence of DRM planning,” the report added.
