Disaster Management

In a new report titled ‘Narrowing the Disaster Risk Protection Gap in Central Asia’, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) determined that Pakistan suffers a loss of $2.244 billion annually due to poor management and a weak financing approach. Every few years, we experience a destructive manifestation of climate change—usually in the form of floods, droughts or earthquakes—that kill, injure and displace thousands. Despite the dire circumstances that prevail following such calamities, it seems as though no concrete plan was devised to mitigate the risks and provide the government with a buffer for the management of destruction. At this point in time, it is not enough to say that change will happen; effort has to be put in to make it a reality. The report dove into details about the extent of loss that Pakistan suffers from because of inefficient and surface-level disaster management policies. In the floods of 2010 and 2015 alone, we experienced $326 million in losses; and this is excluding the long-term harm caused to the agricultural sector and the service industry as well as the financial burden on development bodies that were tasked with reconstruction and rehabilitation. Governments have been unable to create appropriate risk retention mechanisms which is why we often have insufficient funds to initiate large-scale rehabilitation and revival projects. The federal government usually has a contingency fund of $15-20 million but this had fallen to an average of just $10.6 million in 2019. The frequency of national disasters keeps increasing at the same rate as our finances keep decreasing, resulting in a problem that should concern each citizen considering the fatal impacts it could have. The world has unanimously agreed upon the fact that climate change is only going to get worse, and the hardest hit countries will be those like Pakistan who have been unable to establish effective barriers against natural disasters. Floods and earthquakes are expected to become common and the fact that the majority of the population lives in multidimensional poverty adds to the depravity. In the face of these tough odds, it is vital that the government comes up with a resilient plan that includes attracting better funding options, risk management, rescue teams, training and rehabilitation schemes. Policies surrounding environmental catastrophes must be made and passed with urgency.

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