UN official terms relief operation in quake-hit areas successful
By Our Correspondent
UNITED NATIONS, Oct 10: The earthquake disaster relief operation in Pakistan’s northern area has been termed successful by a top United Nations official Tuesday.
“There had been a two-year-long ongoing and successful operation in reconstructing houses and communities,” said John Holmes, the United Nations Emergency Relief Coordinator, in response to a question about disaster relief operations in Pakistan.
He observed that “just after the disaster, which as in all disasters was characterised by chaos, mistakes had been made by everybody”, adding “it’s an ongoing success”.
Mr Holmes announced that the International Day theme – “Disaster risk reduction begins at school” – would highlight how to make schools safer and how to integrate disaster risk reduction and disaster preparedness into the school curriculum.
He said the number of people threatened by natural disasters had increased by three times over the last 30 years and the number of people affected by natural disasters doubled every 10 years.
Tens of millions of people had been affected this year by floods in countries all over the world. The link between the increase in disasters and climate change, which had been predicted by scientists, was unmistakable. Also, more people were now living in exposed areas. Some of the biggest cities in the world were built in disaster zones. Their poorest inhabitants were living in slums near those disaster zones and were, therefore, even more vulnerable. That could lead to “mega disasters in mega cities”.
Mr Holmes appealed to the world leaders to show leadership and upgrade efforts for disaster prevention and reduction. For some ordinary communities, climate change already meant a daily struggle with life and death. Especially at the local level, small things could make a big difference.
His Federation’s Global Alliance for Disaster Risk Reduction would increase risk reduction actions by 30 per cent over the next three to four years.
