The Provincial Disaster Management Authority of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is working on a winter contingency plan to minimise disaster risks and ensure a timely coordinated response to natural hazards, WealthPK reports.

The plan is being devised in consultation with all the stakeholders, including the district administrations, the provincial and federal departments and humanitarian partners. a

In this connection, a pre-winter planning and orientation meeting was held in Peshawar with PDMA Director General Sharif Hussain in the chair. The additional deputy commissioners (relief) and relevant officers from district administrations, line departments, representatives of the United Nations Development Programme-GLOF 2 project along with the staff of PDMA attended the meeting.

Sharif Hussain said on the occasion that during the last monsoon, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa suffered from heavy floods and torrential rain. Due to early warning, the PDMA, district administration and other relevant departments evacuated 406,568 people to safe places before the floods while 69,775 people were rescued in different districts, he added.

“Our collaborative response is appreciated at all national and international levels. The same spirit and coordination are expected from all the relevant departments and partners for the winter contingency plan 2022-23,” he said.

Sharif Hussain said that they started the process of winter contingency planning by involving all stakeholders and the plan would be developed by the mid of November. Tools for data collection are developed and shared with all stakeholders including information regarding district and sector-specific hazards and vulnerability profile, hazard impact, damages, compensation paid, resource mapping, need assessment and coordination.

“Under the upcoming contingency plan, PDMA would make efforts to minimise the losses likely to be caused by the disasters. The natural hazards include extremely low temperatures, fog, smog, snowfall, rainfall, landslides, flash floods and seismic activity along the mountainous north and west,” he said.

The plan will put the districts into very high, high, medium and low categories according to their vulnerability and risk assessment. Each weather pattern comes with its own set of contingencies. The peculiar geography, terrain and natural resources make Khyber Pakhtunkhwa prone to a number of climate contingencies during both summers and winters.

Some regions of the province such as Malakand and Hazara divisions, by virtue of their high altitudes, are exposed to weather extremes in winter spreading around four months from December to March.

Low temperature, fog and smog, snowfall, rainfall, landslides, avalanches and the consequent blockade of roads and pathways often result in inaccessibility of the areas.

Director of Disaster Risk Management of PDMA Muhammad Amin said that the Authority initiated the process of introducing a proactive preparedness regime under guidelines established by the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) to streamline response at provincial and district levels in coordination with all stakeholders.

Contingency planning for major hazards will help in the initiation of required mitigation measures and coordinated response to minimise the losses in case of disaster, he said. It is stakeholders’ inclusive exercise that takes stock of what exists in terms of resources and hazards analysis to determine the likely relief caseloads as a planning assumption, he added.

Credit : Independent News Pakistan-WealthPk