ISLAMABAD: National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) Spokesman Ahmed Kamal said that natural disasters are unavoidable but the damage from such tragedies can reasonably be lowered through formulating and keeping an affective and comprehensive strategy in place to address certain key area issues.
Appropriate planning and putting effective strategy in place can help mitigate the adverse impact of global meteorological changes that had reached extreme levels due to global warming and changing ‘climate change patterns’. Tree plantation, with proper replantation for every cutting tree at the same place, effective planning for land use, proper drainage system, constructing more reservoirs are the basic steps to reduce life and land losses due to natural disasters, he added.
He said that monsoon was a good opportunity for our country and if the water conservation strategy had been adopted to save the water in ponds and dams, it would not have only catered to the needs of the local areas but would also have helped prevent soil erosion. He further remarked that competent persons should be placed at right places and accountability should be ensured to get desired result or appropriate action must be taken against those found guilty or responsible for ignoring their professional responsibilities. NDMA Spokesman further said that improvement in inter-provincial and inter-departmental coordination would also be imperative to check the losses of unpredictable disasters.
Commenting on the dust-storm which hit twin cities on June 1, with the recorded intensity of 150 kilometer per hour, he stated that the dust storm was developed in Malakand, but it was aggravated in Rawalpindi and Islamabad due to urban heat. He stated that Pakistan Meteorological department has tracked the movement of the dust storm and if it needed latest equipment for prediction of disasters then it was high time to update their technology.
