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IN spite of a small core of dedicated and interest-driven naysayers, climate change has now proven to be incontrovertibly behind the sustained surge in the incidence of natural disasters. Like the rest of the world, Pakistan too has become increasingly prone to natural calamities, but we have never seemed ready for such emergencies.
This was the case with the 2010 floods when Pakistan was found woefully ill-prepared to cope with the disaster despite advance warnings from experts and international disaster response actors. Mercifully, the crisis was overcome with a huge dollop of foreign help in cash and expertise coupled with local resources — both human and financial.
Many studies resulted from the crisis; lessons were drawn and apparently woven into disaster management plans. Many projects were put in place with a view to better tackling such crises in future. Yet, as the response to the 2014 floods has again demonstrated, the lessons from our previous brushes with the floods have not been fully absorbed institutionally and integrated into existing plans.
Despite the limited scale of the 2014 floods, the National Disaster Management Authority’s (NDMA) latest figures as reported in the media put the number of deaths at 367, with 673 injured, 107,102 houses destroyed and 2.53 million people affected in 4,065 villages. These figures are worrying, because even one death is a death too many. The devastation is put down largely to a disjointed and tardy response as evident from the personal testimonies that have appeared in the media. This shows glaring gaps in our prevention, preparedness and disaster response mechanisms.
Local government is a crucial cog in the disaster response wheel.
One of the missing links is the insufficient importance accorded to local governments and local communities in our slowly maturing disaster management toolbox. Although the NDMA has elaborately factored district-level disaster management authorities into its grand scheme of things, these bodies remain dormant and non-functional in most districts, despite some commendable efforts by the UN and other international humanitarian agencies to institutionalise this local structure. These district disaster management authorities (DMAs), functioning under a different nomenclature in KP, are currently led by the district coordination officers.
DMAs perform well where the DCOs have displayed personal leadership and commitment, but they are generally treated as mothballed bureaucratic set-ups, dusted off when disaster strikes. On the whole, DMAs suffer from a lack of ownership and resources largely because of lack of input from local communities. Local government remains at the heart of any effective disaster preparedness and response plan.
During the 2010 floods, the absence of local government was keenly felt by those affected. In fact, local governments are the first interface between natural calamities and communities. Local councillors and local governments have a stake in prevention and response strategies because their electoral reputation is on the line if they respond poorly.
In contrast, the DCO-led DMAs suffer not just from lack of community participation but also from lack of accountability and ownership. This leads to a situation where the district disaster plans remain unrepresentative, devoid of community input and community leadership. The DCOs’ promotion does not depend upon their record as good disaster managers, while the district or tehsil or union council nazims have huge reputational stake in their response to disasters. Elected official-led DMAs have the added advantage of drawing in local communities.
Pakistan is also a signatory to the Hyogo Framework of Action which, apart from other commendable measures, places a great deal of stress on the importance of according higher salience to local-level involvement in disaster preparedness and response. That is another reason why the local response should be the top priority of the government in the improved future disaster management plans.
In the past few weeks, the election of local governments has again surfaced on the policy agenda. As well as forming an important link in the democratic chain, local government is also a crucial cog in the disaster response wheel. Hence the holding of local bodies’ elections is urgent for more than political and democratic reasons. Natural disasters, when not handled institutionally and consistently well, can pan out with disastrous consequences for the bond of trust that unites people.
One case in point is pre-Bangladesh Pakistan. The inability of successive West Pakistan governments to deal effectively with the perennial problem of flooding in East Pakistan formed the core of the anti-Pakistan grievances that drove a wedge between the country’s two wings. Local government and their enhanced role in disaster management can play an important part in bridging the gap between the rulers and the ruled.
The writer is an Islamabad-based development consultant and policy analyst.
Published in Dawn, October 19th, 2014
