PESHAWAR: The capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is highly vulnerable to natural and human-induced disasters, lacks risk reduction measures and suffers from the overlapping responsibilities of government organs, shows a study.

The 91-page study titled as ‘Situational Analysis of Urban Disaster Risk Management in Peshawar’ prepared by the Care International in Pakistan (CIP) with the assistance of the EU Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection (ECHO) was formally launched here on Friday.

While recounting the hazard profile of the provincial capital, the study revealed Peshawar ranked 26th among 145 districts of the country on the severity index of the National Disaster Management Plan 2012-22, wherein it was the most vulnerable to earthquakes and floods. However, a critical analysis of the study reveals flaws in it as it declarers the threat of cyclones ‘low’ though it hit Peshawar twice first in 2014 and then in 2015 causing a considerable damage to public life and property.

“Peshawar would have fallen in top three vulnerable districts on National Disaster Management Plan in terms of natural and human induced disasters if hazards like refugees, displaced person influx, terrorism and fires were taken into account,” it said.

CIP research says unplanned rapid urbanisation major cause of urban flooding, climate change poses serious hazards to city

According to it, the urban flooding’s intensity in Peshawar has increased over past few years and poor drainage system was one of the main reasons.

Apart from old city, Warsak Road, Gulbahar, cantonment areas and planned neighbourhood of Hayatabad have faced urban flooding with about four feet water level in 2013, 2014 and 2015, while flood protection works are done without technical assessment on identification of the relevant lawmaker or minister.

The rapid urbanisation sans planning emerges as a major cause of urban flooding, while climate change and westward movement of monsoon rainfall patterns pose serious hazards to Peshawar, it notes.

The study notes that Peshawar’s vulnerability in terms of earthquake risk was very high as highly active Hindu Kush seismic region was about 200 kilometers northwest of the city. Authorities’ failure to implement building codes only heightens the risk faced by the city, as these regulations are only followed for public infrastructure, while private buildings lacked enforcement regime. “Most recent building regulation available for Peshawar date form 1985,” it notes, adding that these bylaws have essentially no requirement for either structural or earthquake design.

Also windstorms were also a recurring hazard in Peshawar; however, April 2015 mini-cyclone hitting Peshawar was an unusual phenomenon and met department even expressed inability to predict such weather patterns.

Provincial capital was struggling with fires, terrorism, environmental risks, influx of internally displaced persons (IDPs) and refugees and epidemics. About 42 percent of registered IDPs and 60 percent of 1.7 million Afghan refugees live in or around Peshawar district, it said, adding that presence of such a large number of people puts immense pressure on housing and land.

It said that World Health Organisation (WHO) declared the district as world’s largest polio reservoir back in 2014, while other studies have found that most of the drinking water contaminated before reaching households.

Officials of the Public Health Engineering department Water and Sanitation Services Peshawar admitted to authors that water distribution pipes were about four decades old and were main cause of problems.

The stakeholder analysis of the study notes that complications were evident in study of roles, responsibilities and resources of various stakeholders in the city.

“Less clarity, overlapping responsibilities, and duplication and mismanagement of resources is what every stakeholder agrees as an issue,” it added.

The study called for the clarity of the roles of the various agencies and departments, strengthening of linkages between them, enforcement of byelaws and regulations, technical research, livelihood resilience and inclusion of urban DRM in the upcoming Strategic Master Plan of the City for which the TORs are being developed by Urban Policy Unit.

Provincial Disaster Management Authority director resources and administration Mohammad Khalid, who was the chief guest on the occasion, said his organisation would forward the report to all relevant government agencies for improvement of own DRM strategies for the provincial capital. '

Published in Dawn, October 1st, 2016