PESHAWAR
The Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has initiated the process to outline a comprehensive winter contingency plan 2022-23.
According to Director General PDMA Sharif Hussain, in order to ensure timely response all relevant stockholders including district administrations, provincial and federal departments and humanitarian partners would be taken on board.
In this connection an important pre winter planning/orientation meeting was held under the chairmanship of Director General Sharif Hussain.
Additional Deputy Commissioners (Relief) and concerned officers from District Administrations, Line Departments, representatives of UNDP GLOF 2 project along with the concerned staff of PDMA participated in this session.
“During last monsoon the province suffered from heavy floods and torrential rains but due to early warning PDMA, district administration and other relevant departments evacuated 406568 people to safe places before the floods while 69775 people were rescued through rescue operation in different districts,” he added.
He appreciated the hard work and role of district administration during the rescue operation, relief and rehabilitation phase of these hours of need.
He further said “we started the process of Winter Contingency Planning by involving all stakeholders and the winter contingency plan will be developed by the mid of November. Tools for data collection are developed and shared with all stakeholders including information regarding district/sector specific hazards and vulnerability profile, hazard impact, damages, compensation paid, resource mapping, need assessment and coordination”.
Mr Sharif maintained all efforts would be made to minimize the losses due to disasters.
The natural hazards include winter hazards of extreme low temperature, fog/smog, snowfall, rainfall, landslides, flash floods, seismic activity along the mountainous north and west.
As per details, the plan will carry out assessment of different districts vulnerability and risk assessment into very high, high, medium and low categories.
The peculiar geography, terrain and natural resources make the province prone to a number of climate contingencies during both summers and winters.
It added that some regions such as Malakand and Hazara divisions of high altitudes are exposed to weather extremes in winter spreading around 4 months from December to March.
The low temperature, Fog/Smog, Snowfall, Rainfall, Landslides, Avalanches and the consequent blockade of roads and pathways resulting in inaccessibility of the areas are some of the common features.
The process of contingency planning for major hazards shall enable initiation of requisite mitigation measures and to undertake a coordinated response to minimize the loss of life and property in the events of disasters.
