HYDERABAD: Disaster in the Pakistan’s southern province of Sindh in the wake of the recent monsoon rains has exposed the capacity of the Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA).
The rains have also proved that the basic unit of disaster management, District Disaster Management Authority (DDMA), has either not been formed or stands in urgent need of strengthening.
No pre-disaster preparations are seen at the level of the PDMA with the result that apart from rural areas, floodwaters inundated urban areas in six major districts of Sindh.
The entire focus of the PDMA and the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) was on providing tents and ration packets.
Districts like Jacobabad, Kashmore in Kandhkot, Shikarpur, Sukkur, Khairpur and Sukkur were hit by floods. Their urban centres had waist-high rainwater and people had to wade through it. Lack of logistics and food compounded the miseries of the rain-hit people in the districts.
It seems that the District Disaster Management Authorities (DDMAs) are not functional in Sindh as required under the National Disaster Management Act 2010. DDMAs, earlier headed by DCOs and now led by DCs, apparently lack resources. It has been witnessed that whenever disaster hits districts, their administrations face serious issues of mitigating sufferings of people.
“All DCs are heading DDMAs, but they need to be strengthened as independent institutions, otherwise relief work has always been done by the senior member of the board of revenue who is also relief commissioner by virtue of his post under the 1958 Act,” argued Haleem Adil Sheikh, adviser to the Sindh chief minister on relief.
He said the required coordination was not seen. “This is a serious issue and needs attention. The president, the chief minister and ministers are in the field, but lack of coordination with all other line departments is missing,” he said.
It was in the wake of an earthquake in 2005 in Azad Kashmir when the NDMA was formed. It primarily coordinates with PDMAs in each province.
According to its chairman Dr Zafar Iqbal Qadir, the NDMA steps in when its intervention is sought by the PDMA.
The NDMA coordinates at the international level with donor agencies and disseminate information regarding weather advisories.
According to Sindh Rehabilitation Minister Haji Muzaffar Shujra, Sindh’s six districts received record rainfall and this is something nobody can stop. “We are now able to dewater 95 per cent areas in those districts,” he said and conceded that Jacobabad was the worst-hit district.
Internews
