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DISASTOR MANAGEMENT IN PAKSITAN AN APPRAISAL

INTRODUCTION

1. Disaster management is the discipline of dealing with and avoiding risks. Itis a discipline that involves preparing for disaster before it occurs, disaster

response (e.g., emergency evacuation, quarantine, mass decontamination, etc.),

and supporting, and rebuilding society after natural or human-made disasters

have occurred. In general, any Emergency management is the continuous

process by which all individuals, groups, and communities manage hazards in an

effort to avoid or ameliorate the impact of disasters resulting from the hazards.

Actions taken depend in part on perceptions of risk of those exposed. Effective

emergency management relies on thorough integration of emergency plans at all

levels of government and non-government involvement. Activities at each level

(individual, group, community) affect the other levels.

2. Pakistan has a very diverse land and climatic conditions which make

it susceptible to various forms of disasters. Over the years the concept

and philosophy to perform the daunting challenge of facing natural

disasters and devising a plan to minimize their effects have changed. One

of the aftermaths of 2005 earthquake was establishment of an authority

at national level to effectively manage the disasters. This authority has

played its role in relief and reconstructions phase of earthquake affectees,

recent crisis of atabad lake and flood relief operations.

AIM

3. The aim of service paper is to evaluate the disaster management at

various tiers during different natural calamities faced by Pakistan in

recent years.

STEPS OF DISASTER MANAGEMENT

4. Following are the four steps of disaster management:

Rescue

Relief 

Rehabilitation

PHASES AND PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES

5. The nature of management depends on local economic and socialconditions. The process of emergency management involves four phases:mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery.

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Mitigation

6. Mitigation efforts attempt to prevent hazards from developing intodisasters altogether, or to reduce the effects of disasters when they occur.

 The mitigation phase differs from the other phases because it focuses onlong-term measures for reducing or eliminating risk. The implementationof mitigation strategies can be considered a part of the recovery process if applied after a disaster occurs. Mitigative measures can be structural ornon-structural. Structural measures use technological solutions, like floodlevees. Non-structural measures include legislation, land-use planning(e.g. the designation of nonessential land like parks to be used as floodzones), and insurance. Mitigation is the most cost-efficient method forreducing the impact of hazards, however it is not always suitable.Mitigation does include providing regulations regarding evacuation,

sanctions against those who refuse to obey the regulations (such asmandatory evacuations), and communication of potential risks to thepublic. Some structural mitigation measures may have adverse effects onthe ecosystem.

7. A precursor activity to the mitigation is the identification of risks.Physical risk assessment refers to the process of identifying andevaluating hazards.[1] The hazard-specific risk (Rh) combines both theprobability and the level of impact of a specific hazard. The equationbelow states that the hazard multiplied by the populations’ vulnerability tothat hazard produces a risk Catastrophe modeling. The higher the risk, the

more urgent that the hazard specific vulnerabilities are targeted bymitigation and preparedness efforts. However, if there is no vulnerabilitythere will be no risk, e.g. an earthquake occurring in a desert wherenobody lives.

Preparedness

8. Preparedness is a continuous cycle of planning, organizing, training,equipping, exercising, evaluation and improvement activities to ensureeffective coordination and the enhancement of capabilities to prevent,protect against, respond to, recover from, and mitigate the effects of natural disasters, acts of terrorism, and other man-made disasters.

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9. In the preparedness phase, emergency managers develop plans of action to manage and counter their risks and take action to build thenecessary capabilities needed to implement such plans. Commonpreparedness measures include:

• Communication plans with easily understandable terminology andmethods.

• Proper maintenance and training of emergency services, includingmass human resources such as community emergency response teams.

• Development and exercise of  emergency population warning methods combined with emergency shelters and evacuation plans.

• S tockpiling, inventory, and maintain disaster supplies andequipment] 

• Develop organizations of trained volunteers among civilianpopulations. Professional emergency workers are rapidlyoverwhelmed in mass emergencies so trained, organized,responsible volunteers are extremely valuable. Organizations likeCommunity Emergency Response Teams and the Red Cross areready sources of trained volunteers. Another aspect of preparednessis casualty prediction, the study of how many deaths or injuries toexpect for a given kind of event. This gives planners an idea of whatresources need to be in place to respond to a particular kind of event.

10. Emergency Managers in the planning phase should be flexible, andall encompassing - carefully recognizing the risks and exposures of theirrespective regions and employing unconventional and atypical means of 

support. Depending on the region - municipal, or private sectoremergency services can rapidly be depleted and heavily taxed. Non-governmental organizations that offer desired resources, i.e.,transportation of displaced homeowners to be conducted by local schooldistrict buses, evacuation of flood victims to be performed by mutual aideagreements between fire departments and rescue squads, should beidentified early in planning stages, and practiced with regularity.

Response

11. The response phase includes the mobilization of the necessary

emergency services and first responders in the disaster area. This is likelyto include a first wave of core emergency services, such as firefighters,police and ambulance crews. When conducted as a military operation, it istermed Disaster Relief Operation (DRO) and can be a follow-up to aNon-combatant evacuation operation (NEO). They may be supported by anumber of secondary emergency services, such as specialist rescueteams.

12. A well rehearsed emergency plan developed as part of thepreparedness phase enables efficient coordination of rescue. Whererequired, search and rescue efforts commence at an early stage.Depending on injuries sustained by the victim, outside temperature, andvictim access to air and water, the vast majority of those affected by adisaster will die within 72 hours after impact.

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13. Organizational response to any significant disaster - natural orterrorist-borne - is based on existing emergency managementorganizational systems and processes: the Federal Response Plan (FRP)and the Incident Command System (ICS). These systems are solidifiedthrough the principles of Unified Command (UC) and Mutual Aid (MA)

14. There is a need for both discipline (structure, doctrine, process) and

agility (creativity, improvisation, adaptability) in responding to a disaster.Combining that with the need to onboard and build a high functioningleadership team quickly to coordinate and manage efforts as they growbeyond first responders indicates the need for a leader and his or herteam to craft and implement a disciplined, iterative set of response plans.  This allows the team to move forward with coordinated, disciplinedresponses that are vaguely right and adapt to new information andchanging circumstances along the way.

Recovery

15. The aim of the recovery phase is to restore the affected area to itsprevious state. It differs from the response phase in its focus; recoveryefforts are concerned with issues and decisions that must be made afterimmediate needs are addressed. Recovery efforts are primarily concernedwith actions that involve rebuilding destroyed property, re-employment,and the repair of other essential infrastructure. Efforts should be made to"build back better", aiming to reduce the pre-disaster risks inherent in thecommunity and infrastructure. An important aspect of effective recoveryefforts is taking advantage of a ‘window of opportunity’ for theimplementation of mitigative measures that might otherwise be

unpopular. Citizens of the affected area are more likely to accept moremitigative changes when a recent disaster is in fresh memory.

TYPES OF DISASTERS

NATURAL DISASTERS

NON NATURAL DISASTERS

16. Different natural, calamities can be distinguished from each other interms of their nature and extent of their impact. Calamities like

earthquakes, hailstorms, avalanches, landslides, etc. occur quite suddenlybut they are restricted in their impact in terms of time and space.Similarly, though floods and cyclones occur with some element of warningyet their occurrence is confined in duration. Drought, on the other hand,spans over a much longer time-frame and its adverse impact on theeconomic activities and life of an area is of a more lasting nature. Themeasures required to meet the threats posed by different calamities,therefore, differ considerably in terms of disaster preparedness andamelioration of the economic and social life of the affected people.

DISASTERS PRONE TO PAKISTAN

17. Pakistan itself continues to suffer from an excess of natural and

human induced hazards that threaten to affect the lives and livelihood of 

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its citizens – natural disasters including floods, earthquakes, landslides,

cyclones, and drought to human induced disasters such as fires, civil

unrest and terrorism, refugees and internally displaced people, health

epidemics, transport accidents, industrial accidents and war.

18. Pakistan has a very diverse land and climatic conditions which make

it susceptible to various forms of disasters. The Northern Areas and parts

of Balochistan are seismic prone meaning that shock waves are produced

within the structure of the Earth which effects the Earth's surface in the

form of earthquakes , whereas floods are a common phenomenon in the

provinces of Punjab and Sindh. The Disaster Profile of Pakistan indicates

that almost every year the country has to cope with one or other form of 

disaster. Millions of Pakistanis have been victims of these disasters and

continue to be so.

HISTORY OF DISASTERS IN PAKISTAN

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EVOLUTION OF DISASTER MANAGEMENT IN PAKISTAN

19. Due to its unique geo-climatic conditions, Pakistan is one of themost disaster prone countries in the world Over 40% of landmass is

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vulnerable to earthquakes, 6% to cyclone, 60% to floods and 25% of theBarani land under cultivation is vulnerable to drought . If one adds thelosses in Pakistan, where most of the property of the people, especially inthe rural areas remains uninsured, the losses are astronomical. Theunique geo-environmental setting of the North Himalayas, the heavyrainfall, weak geological formations, accelerated rates of erosion followedby silting and meandering of rivers, very high seismicity makes the

Northern area one of the most disaster prone regions in the country.Considering this, and the comparative inaccessibility, the North regiondemands special attention to minimize loss of lives and social, private andcommunity losses and to ensure sustainable development.

20. In 1958 The Calamity Act, was promulgated but it was mainlyconcerned with emergency responses. Then a system of ProvincialResponse and Relief Commission was established and an EmergencyRelief Cell in the Cabinet Secretariat was responsible for overall relief efforts of the Federal Government. Before horrific earth quake of Oct 05,there existed no formal disaster management institution/ plan to cope upwith different natural calamities. The loss of life and property and thechallenges that were faced in the aftermath of October 2005 earthquakeaffecting Azad Jammu and Kashmir and the NWFP province exhibited theneed for establishing appropriate policy and institutional arrangements toreduce losses from disasters in future. The earthquake tested theresilience and capacity of Pakistan and its people to overcomecatastrophes.

21. The need for strong institutional and policy arrangements has beenfulfilled with the establishment of the National Disaster ManagementCommission (NDMC), the National Disaster Management Authority

(NDMA), and the passing of the National Disaster Management Ordinance,2006. The NDMA was set with the aim of changing national responses toemergency situations from a reactionary model to an active prevention,mitigation and preparedness model. It prioritized its efforts as follows;

Institutional and legal arrangements for DRM Hazard and vulnerability assessment.  Training, education and awareness. Disaster risk management planning. Community and local level programming.

Multi-hazard early warning system. Mainstreaming disaster risk reduction into development. Emergency response system, and Capacity development for post disaster recovery.

DISASTER MANAGEMET/RELIEF EFFORTS IN 2005 EARTH QUAKE

22. According to the government’s count, 86,000 people died in the2005 earthquake. Among the dead, the number of young — those belowthe age of 15 — was disproportionately large, perhaps as high as 60,000.An enormous amount of damage was done to the region’s infrastructure,

both physical and social. Roads and bridges, tunnels were destroyed, aswere schools, hospitals, clinics and community centres, about 10,000schools. Massive relief operations were conducted in affected areas and

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the Earthquake Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Authority, in closeconsultation with donors and sponsors and in collaboration with ProvincialEarthquake Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Authority (PERRA), StateReconstruction and Rehabilitation Authority (SERRA) and line departmentsdeveloped a comprehensive umbrella programme covering 12 majorsectors as follows:

Housing Livelihoods

Education

Health

Water and Sanitation

Power

 Transportation

Communication

Social Protection

Environment

 Tourism and Industry Governance

CRITIQUE

23.   The devastating 7.6 magnitude earthquake that struck North-

western Pakistan in October 2005 led to the establishment of a

government body tasked with coordinating the emergency response, early

recovery and reconstruction of homes and infrastructure.

24. The Earthquake Relief and Rehabilitation Authority (ERRA) was

credited with overseeing the biggest post-disaster reconstruction effort in

history: Its owner-driven rural housing programme to rebuild some

435,000 homes in nine districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Pakistan-

administered Kashmir. However, amid the chaotic scenes that inevitably

followed such a large-scale and widely scattered disaster, it took some 

time for ERRA to formulate and implement its policies.

25. Coming from “zero capacity” ERRA had done a “pretty good job” in

harmonizing all the stakeholders involved in the disaster, but he alsolamented the amount of time and money needed to arrive at best

practices.

26. The State Earthquake Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Agency

(SERRA) was set up in Pakistan-administered Kashmir to work under

ERRA, as was the Provincial Earthquake Reconstruction and Rehabilitation

Agency (PERRA) for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Disasters in the rest of the

country are dealt with by the National Disaster Management Authority

(NDMA), which was set up in 2007, and many say it does not get along

well with ERRA.

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27. There was confusion over roles and responsibilities due to these

parallel structures. And because the power and resources have been with

ERRA, the line departments have not taken interest in the implementation

and as soon as ERRA had finished its work - around the end of 2009 -

these parallel structures should have been dissolved and all assets

handed over to publicly accountable line departments.

ATABAD LAKE CRISIS – 2010

28. Landslides in Hunza river are common due to proximity of theglaciers. However, in 2010, this natural phenomenon was transformedinto a calamity as abrupt land movements created a lake near Atabadvillage, 15 Km north of central Hunza, of Gilgit-Baltistan region. With roadssubmerged and communication links broken, 141 Houses (1652individuals) of Village Attabad & Sarat displaced due to land sliding. Due

to inundation 381 Houses were destroyed. Relief operation was conductedby Disaster management authority with 1917 Heli Sorties and 18231people were shifted along with 484.25 Tons of food, medicines and fueletc was provided. Total 8355 x passengers including goods have beentransported from site to safe areas through boats. Affectees were shiftedto camps and were provided with basic necessities. Comparing with earthquake relief and rehabilitation efforts, performance of disastermanagement authority was much improved and well coordinated.

FLOODS - 2010

29. The 2010 Pakistan floods began in July 2010 following heavymonsoon rains in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Sindh, Punjab and Balochistan regions of  Pakistan. Present estimates indicate that over two thousandpeople died and over a million homes have been destroyed since theflooding , more than 21 million people are injured or homeless as a resultof the flooding, exceeding the combined total of individuals affected bythe 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, the 2005 Kashmir earthquake and the2010 Haiti earthquake. At one point, approximately one-fifth of Pakistan'stotal land area was underwater due to the flooding. 

30. NDMA and other stakeholders, the humanitarian community inPakistan continues to make all efforts to reach as many of the affectedmen, women, boys and girls as possible. It is recognized, however, thatthe sheer scale of the disaster and the unprecedented number of vulnerable people exceeds the capacity of any single stakeholder. Thegeographical scale of this disaster and the number of affected peoplemakes this a bigger and more complex situation than almost any otherever faced by the humanitarian community.

CONCLUSION AND AND RECOMMENDATION

31. Overall disaster management authority has played important role inrelief operations, however due to lack of technical knowledge andmanpower the authority failed to play its role effectively while coping with

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these disasters. There is an urgent need to build the capacity of thisauthority and also clearly lay down its bylaws and mandate. NDMA thinksthat its role is only to regulatory which is totally wrong perception, therole of any national disaster management authority all over the world is toregulate, coordinate, develop systems and train technical manpower fordisaster management.

32. Disaster management is multidimensional field and requirestechnical knowledge to get job done. Army can not manage disasters. Theonly role army can play in disaster management is that they can respondto post disaster phase for rescue, relief and recovery on request, but herewe misuse army in disaster management which not only keeps them awayfrom their original task but also puts extra burden on armed forces, inspite of the fact that the army has played an efficient role in all nationalcalamities. On the other hand it also indicates a weakness in NDMA, whichis responsible to provide technical assistance to other governmentagencies in disaster management. But we witness that due to lack of technical knowledge and techniques we suffer maximum damages in termof life and property, e.g. in Air Blue crash the plane caught by fire formany hours and rescue workers reached the spot in minimum possibletime but they fail to control the fire and rescue the victims because theydidn’t have fire fighting knowledge, this fire could have been easilycontrolled if they had put green bushes on fire which is very effectiveinstrument in absence of water, these green bushes are wild andextensively available at crash spot, but we let the bodies burn to ashes,secondly the search operation for black box which was also conducted innonprofessional manner. These type of searches must be carried out bytrained searchers according to search methods

33. Due to frequent occurrence of natural disasters the newly formedagency, National disaster management authority (NDMA), has failed todevelop system across the country to handle disaster at national level. Training and capacity building of the officials dealing with emergencieswould be an important instrument of disaster reduction and recovery.

34. While natural hazards cannot be controlled, the disaster inflicted bythese hazards on the people can be reduced by planned mitigation andpreparedness measures. There needs to be concerted and sustained stepstowards reducing the vulnerability of the country

35.  Taking into consideration the value of development gains which arewiped out through disasters, as also the huge quantum of funds requiredfor post disaster relief and rehabilitation, any investment in disastermitigation will yield a higher rate of return than any other developmentproject. A paradigm shift is needed to shift focus from reactive toproactive i.e. from relief to prevention and mitigation of disasters.

36. Pakistan is far behind even the poorest countries of south Asia inachieving the disaster risk management and preparedness targets set inHyogo Framework for Action, the participants alleged. Practically, disastermanagement is still confining to rescue and relief, treated by the districtadministrations in the traditional way, mostly following the strategies

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formulated in the sixties. As yet, the civilian administration could not buildup its own capacity and is heavily reliant on military, particularly forrescue and relief operation. The Civil Defense Department, particularly inrural districts exists in a bad shape mostly with empty offices. TheNational Disaster Framework provides for arranging trainings for theofficials, but the idea has never been materialized at least in the sixdistricts visited by this scribe.

37. Often in time of disaster, the district administration comes intoaction without a proper institutional coordination, which renders the wholeexercise directionless and ineffective. Furthermore, the NDMF documentneither fix responsibilities on the local level nor provides for the allocationof required resources. As the District Revenue Officer in a flood hit districtmaintained that during the flood of 2007, the district administrationrequested NGOs working in the district to come forward for the relief of flood affectees, as the district administration lack the resources to arrangethe relief goods. The government relief operation is not amenable to

transparency, due to corruption, misuse of relief goods and nepotism. 

38. Conversely, rehabilitation is one of the gigantic and pain stakingtask in any post-disaster period. In practice, the disaster management inPakistan is still bias in this regard. As SDPI study argues that’ the NDMF’smain emphasis is on the rescue and relief and the document does notelaborate on the rehabilitation procedures’. The government initiatives, if any, regarding rehabilitation bear biases toward the masses. Primarily, thegovernment focus remains on the restoration of strategically importantinfrastructure rather than the rehabilitation of livelihood of the affectees,which increases the incidences of poverty in post disaster period. 

39.   The NDMF reiterates to establish a multi hazard early warningsystem, but so far the Meteorological Department has no institutional linkor proper channel with district administration to provide timelyinformation about the predictable hazards or disaster like torrential rains,floods and cyclones. It seems that MD and Flood Monitoring Cell eitherlack or do not have the capability to forecast accurately about themagnitude of the flood and the areas that might be hit by the flood orresort to negligence.

40.

Keeping in view the vulnerability of the country to various types of disasters, particularly the seasonal floods with a recurrent nature, thegovernment focus should more on preparedness. Every year, flood takesits toll on human lives as well as on national economy, but the policies stilllack the spirit of due implementation. The responsible authorities donothing unless the disaster hit, such attitude toward the problem is boundto end up in chaos and increasing loss.

41.  The NDMF should clearly define role and responsibilities of variousdepartments and authorities at the district level with better institutionalcoordination.

 42. The months of May and June should be declared as preparednessperiod with the high alert notification to all concerned departments and

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municipal organizations. NDMA should also arrange necessary trainingsfor the local authorities to build their capacity to cope with the situationproperly.

43. The mandate of national, provincial and district entities needs to beclarified and a clear line of authority and responsibility established. Therelevant officials need to be empowered to take action rather than shroud

their work in the Trojan Horse word of ‘coordination’. The present floodoffers an opportunity to pull our pants up, or admit that the ‘king has noclothes’ and needs some. The least that can be done, without colossalexpense to the exchequer, is to improve the information managementsystem so that the hazards, early warnings, capacities, resources andgaps are known to everybody and any preparedness or risk reductionwork is done based on the evidence generated from information, asopposed to quixotic, imaginary scenarios.

44. The NDMA also needs to be taken seriously by senior decisionmakers. Its capacity should be strengthened and the organization

decentralized through investing financial resources and deputing able,willing and energetic officers to it. Similarly, the bleak situation with theprovincial DMAs needs urgent attention. Punjab does not have a provincialdisaster management authority, Sindh and KP are better led but withoutpowers or resources;

45.  There is a need to improve the information management system sothat the hazards, early warnings, capacities, resources and gaps areknown to everybody and any preparedness or risk reduction work is donebased on the evidence generated from information. Authority comes withresponsibility, and we need to convey this message to all those involvedin Disaster Mitigation. They have to take their job seriously. Criminalneglect of duties, once punished in open, is the only way we can deliverthis message loud and clear. We as a nation, and affectees of thatinaction, have a right to demand action against those responsible.

46. The UN, the GoP and indeed the international humanitariancommunity as a whole, must continue to invest in the new structures sothat they achieve their objectives. Greater efforts must be made tounderstand each others' mandates, roles and operating procedures anddevelop a real sense of partnership in working towards common

humanitarian goals.

47. Common assessment tools, an effective management informationstrategy and systems, and shared operating procedures, contingencyplans, standards and principles are needed.

48. The decision-making structures should be simplified by creating asenior level Disaster Management Team (DMT) jointly with the GoP/NDMAand representative(s) of other agencies as appropriate. The DMT shouldbe empowered to make all the key strategic response decisions quicklyand effectively.

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