LAHORE, March 17: A three-day international conference on engineering and disaster management will be held here from March 20 to discuss ways and means for mitigating the sufferings of the people affected by natural disasters.

Earthquake Reconstruction and Rehabilitation (ERRA) chairman Altaf Muhammad Salim will inaugurate the conference being held jointly by the Association of Consulting Engineers Pakistan (ACEP), a UN organisation, Technical Consultancy Development Programme for Asia and Pacific (TCDPAP) and FIDIC Grouping for Asia and Pacific (ASPAC).

ACEP president and NESPAK managing director Karamatullah Chaudhry said at a press conference at Lahore Press Club here on Friday that the conference would be attended by about 350 disaster managements experts, consultant engineers, architects, individual engineers, representatives of construction industry, professionals, academia, public and private sector managers, builders, NGOs handling disasters, government policy makers, economists, financial institutions, media and other development professionals. Delegates from Singapore, South Korea, Cambodia, Malaysia, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Nepal, India, Oman, Qatar and Saudi Arabia will also attend the conference which would second to be held in Lahore after 1999.

He said the first technical session would be presided over by Planning Commission deputy chairman Dr Akram Sheikh, second session by ERRA deputy chairman Lt-Gen Nadeem Ahmad, third session by Ahmad Bilal Mahboob, director of Institute of Legislative Development and Transparency (PILDAT) and the concluding session by Dr Jorga Diaz Padilla, president of Federation of International Consultants (FIDIC).

He said the conference would focus on the role of consultant engineers and their partners in designing, supervision and management services for solving the problems of the people affected by the disasters like the devastating earthquake of October 8, 2005, and tsunami in Indonesia and other parts of South Asia on December 26, 2004.

He said great loss of human lives and properties in these disasters raised two important questions; whether South Asia and Pacific region was equipped with the latest technological advancement to forecast, monitor, prevent and manage such disasters, and whether role of engineering design, material selection and construction of facilities was adequate.