Pakistan celebrates the international day for disaster reduction
The International Day for Disaster Reduction (IDDR) encourages every citizen and government to take part in building more disaster resilient communities and nations, said Shakeel Qadir Khan, Director General, Provincial Disaster Management Authority at the occasion of IDDR-2011. He said, the International Day for Disaster Reduction started in 1989 with the approval by the United Nations General Assembly. The UN General Assembly sees the IDDR as a way to promote a global culture of disaster reduction, including disaster prevention, mitigation and preparedness. The day originally celebrated on the second Wednesday of October (resolution 44/236, 22 December 1989).
He said, this year the theme for IDDR is "Making Children and Young People Partners for Disaster Risk Reduction". Repeatedly rendered as victims of disaster and climate change in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa-Pakistan, the children and young people can and should be encouraged to participate in disaster risk reduction and decision making.
PDMA strongly believes that our vision “to achieve sustainable social, economic and environmental development through reducing risks and vulnerabilities, particularly those of the poor and by effectively responding to and recovering from all types of disasters would only be attainable when all stakeholders stay connected and work collectively.
From the day of its inception, PDMA is committed to trigger timely responses to disasters and facilitating other Humanitarian Organizations. He said, the Provincial Disaster Management Authority, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is in the process of establishing a Provincial Emergency Operation Center (PEOC) in its Peshawar office, which will initially be connected with the 10 most disaster prone districts and eventually with all the districts in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Due to the frequency of manmade and natural disasters, during the past five years, it is critical that PDMA Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is prepared and has at its disposal the latest and best structures and mechanism to respond to any and all calamities.
The Operations Center will be a hub or pivot around and through which the concerned authorities will be able to manage disasters and maintain communications in the worst of scenarios. In parallel to the setting up of the Operation Center, the capacities of the District Disaster Management Units will also be enhanced to a level where they will play a useful and helpful role in the districts. The establishment of PEOC will decrease the gap of communication; will help in timely rescue, relief and rehabilitation operations during and after disasters in the region. PDMA has invited expression of interests from reputed firms in this regards and will soon launch its operation