The fourth National Disaster Management Exhibition started on Wednesday at Sheikh Muhammad Taimur Academic Block, University of Peshawar. National, international institutions and organizations dealing in disaster preparedness and management have put their work on display in 51 stalls in the two-day event.
The Exhibition is organized by Centre for Disaster Preparedness and Management, University of Peshawar, in collaboration with AFC- International and Pakistan Science Foundation. Chairman National Disaster Management Authority Dr. Zafar Iqbal Qadar inaugurated the exhibition and visited the stalls.
The key organizations participating in the event are the UN Habitat, United Nations World Food Program, FATA Disaster Management Authority, Unicef, and various local and international NOG`s dealing disaster management.
Addressing the inaugural session NDMA Chairman said the event was a good initiative to bring disaster managers together to think and work for formulating a strategy for better disaster control.
“Let us admit that our country is lacking professional disaster managers to effectively prepare and more importantly manage manmade and natural disasters,” he added.
The Chairman said we are adopting the Malaysian model of disasters preparedness and mitigation as a national policy. The National Policy of Disaster Risk Reduction is in the final stage of approval, besides the NDMA has prepared a ten year plan for DRR as well, he added. Dr. Iqbal added, in order to address the scarcity of resource gaps and trained man power, the government is establishing disaster management institutions at the district level and for this purpose we are linking rescue 1122, CDPM with volunteer and social activities in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
The Government is also introducing the Disaster Risk Insurance for the entire population which would cover compensation to individuals for their losses in cases of untoward happenings. This move is being taken to ensure systemic institutional response to disasters, informed the NDMA Chairman Dr. Zafar Iqbal Qadar.
