The two-day fifth annual disaster management exhibition kicked off at the University of Peshawar on Wednesday.
The event is being jointly organised by Centre for Disaster Preparedness and Management UoP, ACF International and Unesco Pakistan. Some forty-six national and international organisations dealing with natural and manmade disasters are participating in the event, which includes NDMA, PDMA, ACF and Unesco etc.
The exhibition was formally inaugurated by Special Assistant to the Chief Minister Khyber on Higher Education Mushtaq Ghani. He accompanied by Vice Chancellor UoP Prof. Dr Muhammad Rasul Jan and Director CDPM Prof. Dr Amir Nawaz Khan visited the stalls.
Addressing the inaugural function, Mushtaq Ghani said that 21st century has witnessed the worst kind of natural and manmade disasters in history. He said that due to lack of trained disaster managers Pakistan has to suffer grate economic and human losses in the 2005 earthquake, and had there be skilled man power the casualties could have been much lesser.
The advisor went further to add that unplanned urbanisation has augmented the problems and added to our miseries at times of disasters. He appreciated the move of CDPM in their effort to unite good number of disaster management organisations in the exhibition and termed that the event would create awareness among management of disasters amongst the general public especially the youth of KPK and FATA.
Since its establishment in 1950, University of Peshawar has remained a trendsetter in opening departments that are demand of the time said Vice Chancellor in his address.
He said that presently the UoP faculty members of the department of Urban and Regional Planning are providing technical support to KP government in city planning while the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies would start working from the coming academic year that would serve as think tank to the provincial government in drawing strategies for conflict resolution. Sixty-five disaster managers would be made available to the market this year with the requisite skill to prepare and manage disasters, said Director CDPM Prof. Dr Amir Nawaz Khan.
He said that the centre took lead in introducing graduate and research degree programme in disaster preparedness and management in the country. He said that the centre is regularly organising trainings for professional disaster manager, and so far thirty workshops have been arranged for the purpose.
Member Disaster Risk Reduction of the National Disaster Management Authority Ahmed Kamal said that his organisation is launching a five-year capacity building program worth 67 million dollar in collaboration with donor agencies to train disaster managers.–Staff Reporter
He extended his full cooperation for Centre for Disaster Preparedness and Management in managing finances of scholars of CDPM. Zach Watson Deputy Country Director ACF International said that the goal of their organisation is to ensure stable livelihood for the people faced with disasters.
Source: The Frontier Post.
