PESHAWAR, May 12: The Pakistan Red Crescent Society is yet to devise a disaster management plan for the NWFP to cope with any catastrophe or crisis, it is learnt reliably. Officials said eight of the 24 districts in the province had been declared disaster-prone, but the society had no ambulance service, trained workers, communication tools, logistic facilities and warehouses to respond to crises or natural calamities.

Information gathered by Dawn from different sources revealed that the society had only one ambulance for the entire province.

Its clinics offering treatment for eye-related ailments in the Northern Areas have been closed. The authorities concerned attributed the closure to the directives of the military authorities in the area to avoid duplication.

Founded in 1947, the society has no disaster management set up at the district level nor at the country level to respond to the community in any emergency.

The society receives funds and donations from the International Committee of the Red Cross, International Federation of the Red Cross and other sister organisations from across the country for various community projects.

It also receives 10 per cent of the amount collected from ammunition licence fee in the NWFP and a certain amount from the students of public schools at the time of their admission.

“The society has zero level capacity to respond to the community, even when a small intensity disaster hits the region,” according to the sources.

They said its management had restricted the society’s role to collect donations and distribute relief goods.

Now it is said to be converting into another employment exchange for the retired military officials.

Dawn learnt that the project staff of the society had not been given raise in salaries for two years in the province, though the society received funds and donations from the sister organisations.

Owing to their geographic location, sources said, districts Kohistan, Mansehra, Swat, Chitral, Battagram, Dera Ismail Khan, Upper Dir and Buner have been declared as disaster-prone in the NWFP, but the society had no infrastructure in the region. Volunteers have not been issued even identity cards.

An official said the society was now undertaking a plan to set up disaster management cells in Mansehra and Kohistan districts this year.

The PRCS’s media adviser Mirza Raj Beg, when approached, acknowledged that the society had no disaster plan, essential infrastructure and volunteers at the district level to handle situation accordingly.

“We are now devising a plan, but it will take time,” Mr Beg said. He added that the provincial offices had been directed to enrol volunteers at the district level.

He said main functions of the national headquarters were to provide guidelines and build capacity of the provincial offices of the society.

An official said that for the lack of logistics and skilled workers, the PRCS was unable to distribute relief food among the affected people and get access to the community after widespread rains and snowfall hit upper parts of the NWFP.

The society dispatched relief goods worth Rs40 million to the rain-affected areas, according a representative of the society. He said the society totally banked on the administration of the agency concerned.

The district coordination officers (DCOs) act as honorary chairman of the PRCS in districts, but DCOs do not work effectively owing to their other engagements.