DISASTOR MANAGEMENT IN PAKSITAN AN APPRAISAL

INTRODUCTION

1. Disaster management is the discipline of dealing with and avoiding risks. It

is 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 social

conditions. The process of emergency management involves four phases:
mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery.
Mitigation

6. Mitigation efforts attempt to prevent hazards from developing into

disasters altogether, or to reduce the effects of disasters when they occur.
The mitigation phase differs from the other phases because it focuses on
long-term measures for reducing or eliminating risk. The implementation
of mitigation strategies can be considered a part of the recovery process if
applied after a disaster occurs. Mitigative measures can be structural or
non-structural. Structural measures use technological solutions, like flood
levees. Non-structural measures include legislation, land-use planning
(e.g. the designation of nonessential land like parks to be used as flood
zones), and insurance. Mitigation is the most cost-efficient method for
reducing 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 as
mandatory evacuations), and communication of potential risks to the
public. Some structural mitigation measures may have adverse effects on
the ecosystem.

7. A precursor activity to the mitigation is the identification of risks.

Physical risk assessment refers to the process of identifying and
evaluating hazards.[1] The hazard-specific risk (Rh) combines both the
probability and the level of impact of a specific hazard. The equation
below states that the hazard multiplied by the populations’ vulnerability to
that hazard produces a risk Catastrophe modeling. The higher the risk, the
more urgent that the hazard specific vulnerabilities are targeted by
mitigation and preparedness efforts. However, if there is no vulnerability
there will be no risk, e.g. an earthquake occurring in a desert where
nobody lives.

Preparedness

8. Preparedness is a continuous cycle of planning, organizing, training,

equipping, exercising, evaluation and improvement activities to ensure
effective 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.
9. In the preparedness phase, emergency managers develop plans of
action to manage and counter their risks and take action to build the
necessary capabilities needed to implement such plans. Common
preparedness measures include:

• Communication plans with easily understandable terminology and

methods.
• Proper maintenance and training of emergency services, including
mass human resources such as community emergency response
teams.
• Development and exercise of emergency population warning
methods combined with emergency shelters and evacuation plans.
• Stockpiling, inventory, and maintain disaster supplies and
equipment]
• Develop organizations of trained volunteers among civilian
populations. Professional emergency workers are rapidly
overwhelmed in mass emergencies so trained, organized,
responsible volunteers are extremely valuable. Organizations like
Community Emergency Response Teams and the Red Cross are
ready sources of trained volunteers. Another aspect of preparedness
is casualty prediction, the study of how many deaths or injuries to
expect for a given kind of event. This gives planners an idea of what
resources need to be in place to respond to a particular kind of
event.

10. Emergency Managers in the planning phase should be flexible, and

all encompassing - carefully recognizing the risks and exposures of their
respective regions and employing unconventional and atypical means of
support. Depending on the region - municipal, or private sector
emergency 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 school
district buses, evacuation of flood victims to be performed by mutual aide
agreements between fire departments and rescue squads, should be
identified 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 likely
to include a first wave of core emergency services, such as firefighters,
police and ambulance crews. When conducted as a military operation, it is
termed Disaster Relief Operation (DRO) and can be a follow-up to a
Non-combatant evacuation operation (NEO). They may be supported by a
number of secondary emergency services, such as specialist rescue
teams.

12. A well rehearsed emergency plan developed as part of the

preparedness phase enables efficient coordination of rescue. Where
required, search and rescue efforts commence at an early stage.
Depending on injuries sustained by the victim, outside temperature, and
victim access to air and water, the vast majority of those affected by a
disaster will die within 72 hours after impact.
13. Organizational response to any significant disaster - natural or
terrorist-borne - is based on existing emergency management
organizational systems and processes: the Federal Response Plan (FRP)
and the Incident Command System (ICS). These systems are solidified
through 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 functioning
leadership team quickly to coordinate and manage efforts as they grow
beyond first responders indicates the need for a leader and his or her
team to craft and implement a disciplined, iterative set of response plans.
This allows the team to move forward with coordinated, disciplined
responses that are vaguely right and adapt to new information and
changing circumstances along the way.

Recovery

15. The aim of the recovery phase is to restore the affected area to its
previous state. It differs from the response phase in its focus; recovery
efforts are concerned with issues and decisions that must be made after
immediate needs are addressed. Recovery efforts are primarily concerned
with 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 the
community and infrastructure. An important aspect of effective recovery
efforts is taking advantage of a ‘window of opportunity’ for the
implementation of mitigative measures that might otherwise be
unpopular. Citizens of the affected area are more likely to accept more
mitigative 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 in

terms of their nature and extent of their impact. Calamities like
earthquakes, hailstorms, avalanches, landslides, etc. occur quite suddenly
but they are restricted in their impact in terms of time and space.
Similarly, though floods and cyclones occur with some element of warning
yet their occurrence is confined in duration. Drought, on the other hand,
spans over a much longer time-frame and its adverse impact on the
economic activities and life of an area is of a more lasting nature. The
measures required to meet the threats posed by different calamities,
therefore, differ considerably in terms of disaster preparedness and
amelioration 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
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

EVOLUTION OF DISASTER MANAGEMENT IN PAKISTAN

19. Due to its unique geo-climatic conditions, Pakistan is one of the

most disaster prone countries in the world Over 40% of landmass is
vulnerable to earthquakes, 6% to cyclone, 60% to floods and 25% of the
Barani land under cultivation is vulnerable to drought . If one adds the
losses in Pakistan, where most of the property of the people, especially in
the rural areas remains uninsured, the losses are astronomical. The
unique geo-environmental setting of the North Himalayas, the heavy
rainfall, weak geological formations, accelerated rates of erosion followed
by 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 region
demands special attention to minimize loss of lives and social, private and
community losses and to ensure sustainable development.

20. In 1958 The Calamity Act, was promulgated but it was mainly
concerned with emergency responses. Then a system of Provincial
Response and Relief Commission was established and an Emergency
Relief 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 up
with different natural calamities. The loss of life and property and the
challenges that were faced in the aftermath of October 2005 earthquake
affecting Azad Jammu and Kashmir and the NWFP province exhibited the
need for establishing appropriate policy and institutional arrangements to
reduce losses from disasters in future. The earthquake tested the
resilience and capacity of Pakistan and its people to overcome
catastrophes.
21. The need for strong institutional and policy arrangements has been
fulfilled with the establishment of the National Disaster Management
Commission (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 to
emergency 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 the

2005 earthquake. Among the dead, the number of young — those below
the 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, as
were schools, hospitals, clinics and community centres, about 10,000
schools. Massive relief operations were conducted in affected areas and
the Earthquake Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Authority, in close
consultation with donors and sponsors and in collaboration with Provincial
Earthquake Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Authority (PERRA), State
Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Authority (SERRA) and line departments
developed a comprehensive umbrella programme covering 12 major
sectors 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 also
lamented 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.
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 the

glaciers. However, in 2010, this natural phenomenon was transformed
into a calamity as abrupt land movements created a lake near Atabad
village, 15 Km north of central Hunza, of Gilgit-Baltistan region. With roads
submerged and communication links broken, 141 Houses (1652
individuals) of Village Attabad & Sarat displaced due to land sliding. Due
to inundation 381 Houses were destroyed. Relief operation was conducted
by Disaster management authority with 1917 Heli Sorties and 18231
people were shifted along with 484.25 Tons of food, medicines and fuel
etc was provided. Total 8355 x passengers including goods have been
transported from site to safe areas through boats. Affectees were shifted
to camps and were provided with basic necessities. Comparing with earth
quake relief and rehabilitation efforts, performance of disaster
management authority was much improved and well coordinated.

FLOODS - 2010

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

30. NDMA and other stakeholders, the humanitarian community in

Pakistan continues to make all efforts to reach as many of the affected
men, women, boys and girls as possible. It is recognized, however, that
the sheer scale of the disaster and the unprecedented number of
vulnerable people exceeds the capacity of any single stakeholder. The
geographical scale of this disaster and the number of affected people
makes this a bigger and more complex situation than almost any other
ever faced by the humanitarian community.

CONCLUSIONAND AND RECOMMENDATION

31. Overall disaster management authority has played important role in

relief operations, however due to lack of technical knowledge and
manpower the authority failed to play its role effectively while coping with
these disasters. There is an urgent need to build the capacity of this
authority and also clearly lay down its bylaws and mandate. NDMA thinks
that its role is only to regulatory which is totally wrong perception, the
role of any national disaster management authority all over the world is to
regulate, coordinate, develop systems and train technical manpower for
disaster management.

32. Disaster management is multidimensional field and requires

technical knowledge to get job done. Army can not manage disasters. The
only role army can play in disaster management is that they can respond
to post disaster phase for rescue, relief and recovery on request, but here
we misuse army in disaster management which not only keeps them away
from their original task but also puts extra burden on armed forces, in
spite of the fact that the army has played an efficient role in all national
calamities. On the other hand it also indicates a weakness in NDMA, which
is responsible to provide technical assistance to other government
agencies in disaster management. But we witness that due to lack of
technical knowledge and techniques we suffer maximum damages in term
of life and property, e.g. in Air Blue crash the plane caught by fire for
many hours and rescue workers reached the spot in minimum possible
time but they fail to control the fire and rescue the victims because they
didn’t have fire fighting knowledge, this fire could have been easily
controlled if they had put green bushes on fire which is very effective
instrument in absence of water, these green bushes are wild and
extensively available at crash spot, but we let the bodies burn to ashes,
secondly the search operation for black box which was also conducted in
nonprofessional manner. These type of searches must be carried out by
trained searchers according to search methods

33. Due to frequent occurrence of natural disasters the newly formed

agency, National disaster management authority (NDMA), has failed to
develop system across the country to handle disaster at national level.
Training and capacity building of the officials dealing with emergencies
would be an important instrument of disaster reduction and recovery.

34. While natural hazards cannot be controlled, the disaster inflicted by

these hazards on the people can be reduced by planned mitigation and
preparedness measures. There needs to be concerted and sustained steps
towards reducing the vulnerability of the country

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

36. Pakistan is far behind even the poorest countries of south Asia in
achieving the disaster risk management and preparedness targets set in
Hyogo Framework for Action, the participants alleged. Practically, disaster
management is still confining to rescue and relief, treated by the district
administrations in the traditional way, mostly following the strategies
formulated in the sixties. As yet, the civilian administration could not build
up its own capacity and is heavily reliant on military, particularly for
rescue and relief operation. The Civil Defense Department, particularly in
rural districts exists in a bad shape mostly with empty offices. The
National Disaster Framework provides for arranging trainings for the
officials, but the idea has never been materialized at least in the six
districts visited by this scribe.

37. Often in time of disaster, the district administration comes into

action without a proper institutional coordination, which renders the whole
exercise directionless and ineffective. Furthermore, the NDMF document
neither fix responsibilities on the local level nor provides for the allocation
of required resources. As the District Revenue Officer in a flood hit district
maintained that during the flood of 2007, the district administration
requested NGOs working in the district to come forward for the relief of
flood affectees, as the district administration lack the resources to arrange
the 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 staking

task in any post-disaster period. In practice, the disaster management in
Pakistan is still bias in this regard. As SDPI study argues that’ the NDMF’s
main emphasis is on the rescue and relief and the document does not
elaborate on the rehabilitation procedures’. The government initiatives, if
any, regarding rehabilitation bear biases toward the masses. Primarily, the
government focus remains on the restoration of strategically important
infrastructure 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 warning

system, but so far the Meteorological Department has no institutional link
or proper channel with district administration to provide timely
information about the predictable hazards or disaster like torrential rains,
floods and cyclones. It seems that MD and Flood Monitoring Cell either
lack or do not have the capability to forecast accurately about the
magnitude of the flood and the areas that might be hit by the flood or
resort to negligence.

40. Keeping in view the vulnerability of the country to various types of

disasters, particularly the seasonal floods with a recurrent nature, the
government focus should more on preparedness. Every year, flood takes
its toll on human lives as well as on national economy, but the policies still
lack the spirit of due implementation. The responsible authorities do
nothing unless the disaster hit, such attitude toward the problem is bound
to end up in chaos and increasing loss.

41. The NDMF should clearly define role and responsibilities of various
departments and authorities at the district level with better institutional
coordination.

42. The months of May and June should be declared as preparedness

period with the high alert notification to all concerned departments and
municipal organizations. NDMA should also arrange necessary trainings
for the local authorities to build their capacity to cope with the situation
properly.

43. The mandate of national, provincial and district entities needs to be

clarified and a clear line of authority and responsibility established. The
relevant officials need to be empowered to take action rather than shroud
their work in the Trojan Horse word of ‘coordination’. The present flood
offers an opportunity to pull our pants up, or admit that the ‘king has no
clothes’ and needs some. The least that can be done, without colossal
expense to the exchequer, is to improve the information management
system so that the hazards, early warnings, capacities, resources and
gaps are known to everybody and any preparedness or risk reduction
work is done based on the evidence generated from information, as
opposed to quixotic, imaginary scenarios.

44. The NDMA also needs to be taken seriously by senior decision

makers. 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 the
provincial DMAs needs urgent attention. Punjab does not have a provincial
disaster management authority, Sindh and KP are better led but without
powers or resources;

45. There is a need to improve the information management system so

that the hazards, early warnings, capacities, resources and gaps are
known to everybody and any preparedness or risk reduction work is done
based on the evidence generated from information. Authority comes with
responsibility, and we need to convey this message to all those involved
in Disaster Mitigation. They have to take their job seriously. Criminal
neglect of duties, once punished in open, is the only way we can deliver
this message loud and clear. We as a nation, and affectees of that
inaction, have a right to demand action against those responsible.

46. The UN, the GoP and indeed the international humanitarian
community as a whole, must continue to invest in the new structures so
that they achieve their objectives. Greater efforts must be made to
understand each others' mandates, roles and operating procedures and
develop a real sense of partnership in working towards common
humanitarian goals.

47. Common assessment tools, an effective management information

strategy and systems, and shared operating procedures, contingency
plans, standards and principles are needed.

48. The decision-making structures should be simplified by creating a

senior level Disaster Management Team (DMT) jointly with the GoP/NDMA
and representative(s) of other agencies as appropriate. The DMT should
be empowered to make all the key strategic response decisions quickly
and effectively.