National Strategy, Law and Institutional Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction in Pakistan

Abstract

Disasters are on the rise, and we cannot estimate the full range ofimpact of natural hazards, climate change and climate variability. Waterscarcity is a major challenge for some part of our country. Increasingurbanization and pressure on land use will continue to increase ourvulnerability and as a result more and more people will be at risk. Weneed to stop environmental degradation, enhance information exchange andcross border cooperation to ensure disaster risk reduction. However,there is a need of sustainable and coherent institutional mechanism witha vision of long term planning. Governments will still be judged by howthey respond to a disaster. Disasters do give us windows of opportunity.We need to use these windows to ensure that people are not put back intothe same vulnerable position again and again. There is a need to changethe traditional one-dimensional focus on response and to build astronger understanding of the need to evolve strong and disasterresilient societies. The earthquake 2005 was an eye opener for thegovernment of Pakistan and the whole nation. The establishment ofEarthquake Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Authority (ERRA), NationalDisaster Management Authority (NDMA), Provincial Disaster managementAuthorities (PDMAs) and FATA Disaster Management Authority (FDMA) revealthe significance of the disaster management. Beside, this developmentthe efforts of the private sector institutions and organizations cannotbe ignored. They not only responded to the earthquake, 2005 and flashfloods of Peshawar, 2008 but are also engaged in providing services tothe Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and still providing services tothe affected communities of floods 2010 throughout the country. It isclear that a radical change in the approach towards comprehensivedisaster management is needed, with far greater attention towardprevention and preparedness rather than relief and rehabilitation.Perhaps we should begin by tackling the matter at the most fundamentallevel in order to ascertain and apportion the moral responsibility forthe safety of the marginal population that inhibits risk zones. Thepresent chapter is an attempt to explore the institutional structure fordisaster management in Pakistan. The chapter focuses on an overview ofdisasters in Pakistan, causes of Pakistan's vulnerability to disastersand climate change impacts as well as legal framework for disastermanagement in Pakistan, Institutional and organizational arrangementsand problems in the current system is also discussed in the chapter.