ISLAMABAD: Speakers at a conference, on Thursday, agreed that South Asian countries face a similar fate when it comes to natural disasters and must sign agreements to work in cooperation with one another in dealing with them.

The roundtable discussion titled ‘Natural Disasters and SAARC Protocols: Lessons for Pakistan’ was organised by the think tank Jinnah Institute at their office on Thursday.

Aziz Ahmed Khan, who served as Pakistan’s ambassador in India and Afghanistan said floods should not become disasters. “We must be able to control and store water, rather than suffering devastation from it. Joint efforts can help reduce the impact of natural disasters,” he said.

Former Ambassador Shafqat Kakakhel said that because of climate change, more natural disasters are expected. “We have made a disaster management framework but not an action plan. The main challenge in Pakistan is governance,” he said.

Oxfam Country Director Arif Jabbar Khan said countries cannot deal with disasters individually. “At the time of 2005 earthquake, Pakistan did not have the capacity to deal with the devastation. Now in 2015, Nepal is also facing a similar situation and so regional cooperation in natural disasters is the need of the hour. Neighbouring countries must come forward and participate in reconstruction activities,” he said.

Mr Jabbar said “There should be a database of other governments who can be approached in case of an emergency. If regional agreements were in place, after the earthquake in Nepal, India would have allowed Pakistani trucks go through with tents and tarpaulins manufactured in Pakistan,” he said.

National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) representative Waqar Uddin Siddiqui said that Pakistan was the first country which sent the relief goods to Nepal.

“Equipment, food, medicine and tents have been sent to Nepal to reduce the problems faced by people who have been dislocated. Pakistan is a signatory to South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) Rapid Response Agreement,” he said.

Program Director at the Omar Asghar Khan Foundation Rashida Dohad said it was important to learn from the several humanitarian disasters that have struck Pakistan in the past 10 years.

Quoting the example of Battagram District she said that in 2005 as many as 500 schools were demolished because of earthquake, which could not be reconstructed even after 10 years.

“It had become clear after the 2005 earthquake that parallel institutions for response did not work, such as the establishment of ERRA and PERRA. Policy making was focused on the immediate fallout from the disaster rather than the long-term rehabilitation of the affected communities,” she said.

Environment lawyer Ahmad Rafay Alam said that disaster management is a provincial subject after the 18th Amendment and under this arrangement, the federal government works in coordination with provincial disaster relief agencies.

“It is important to move away from post disaster financing and borrowing on high interest rates to pre disaster budgeting for calamities based on sound risk assessment,” he said.

PIEDAR Chief Executive Syed Ayub Qutub, said that although earthquakes have killed the most people in Pakistan but the damage caused by floods is four times greater. “Global warming will cause suffering for the new generation. There will be more droughts and floods because of climate change,” he said.

Published in Dawn, May 15th, 2015

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