Preparing a disaster management plan for each district may appear anuphill task, butthis has to be done whatever the cost
October 8, 2005: one of the most tragic days in the history of Pakistan. A series of earthquakes, aftershocks and hailstorms caused thousands of casualties. Tens of thousands of people were injured and displaced in the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT), parts of Punjab, the NWFP and Azad Jammu and Kashmir. The devastation also affected the Indian-held Kashmir. With the passage of time, news about a mounting death toll and the affected territories continued to appear in the print and electronic media. Images from the sites of destruction were heart-rending. A sizable number of collapsed buildings showed marks of shoddy construction with inadequate capacity to sustain any lateral loads. Initially deployed relief teams were ill-prepared to organize their actions to perform the most important task — saving lives of the people trapped under the rubble. Hapless commoners were the usual volunteers to clear the debris and to reach out to people in great distress. It was only after the arrival of trained rescue workers from Great Britain and Switzerland that the penetration to the inner quadrangles of rubble masses could be achieved. Utter confusion prevailed amongst various government agencies that reached the site of the collapsed building in the ICT. Unclear roles and responsibilities as well as the absence of proper equipment and training in rescue work were observed by all and sundry with dismay. The trauma of the people was further compounded by the smug remarks of the president who seemed to be satisfied at the pace and scale of relief work. A beggarly prime minister, who did not leave even this occasion to ‘beg for aid’, added insult to injury. Sights from remote areas confirmed the fact that poor people were the main victims of this disaster with their squalid abodes completely destroyed. Another painful aspect was the inaccessibility to higher terrains, remote mountainous locations and valley-based villages and hamlets having almost no land-based links. Needless to say that many locations were not even visited by any kind of relief and rescue teams.
The disaster is far from over. Even if nature remains merciful and tremors do not jolt the region in near future, the damage has caused enough cleavage in the socio-economic fabric of a huge context that will probably take years to return to normalcy. As it happens, the images of the disaster shall fade out from the media after two or three weeks. However, the trauma shall keep haunting those who have been direct affectees of the terrible incident.
Matters pertinent to rehabilitation, curing of social damage, threats to public health in the affected areas, the issue of prevention from hazardous epidemics that are common occurrences in such situations, should undoubtedly make the top most agenda for the various tiers of the government. It may also be noted with concern that the northern Pakistan is not the only danger zone. Earthquake engineering experts, geologists and seismologists have cautioned about the southern coastal strip of the country as well. A shiver runs down the spine when one even attempts to think about any such disaster in the chaotic urban contexts of Karachi, Quetta, Peshawar, Rawalpindi and Lahore. Leaving all the other urban maladies aside, each of these cities is characterized by dense inner city areas with poor accessibility. In the case of fire, the approach of fire tenders is severely constrained. Tens of thousands of people inhabit each of these micro-contexts. None of our cities are prepared to deal with disasters or emergencies of any scale. Despite many reminders little notice has been taken in the true sense of the word.
Few weeks back, a trendy restaurant along the Karachi coastline was completely gutted down. The housing authority, which houses the wealthiest people of the city, did not have the correct number of fire tenders to attend the emergency. When an apartment in Gulshan-i-Iqbal caught fire, firefighters were unable to break open steel grills which resulted in the death of seven inhabitants. A properly structured disaster management plan can not be delayed for our cities and districts any further.
As one attempts to prepare any disaster management strategy, many chronic problems can be found — most of them are deliberately created in connivance with our greedy and unscrupulous city building control authorities as well as city/district governments. The permission to construct high rise structures along major corridors, the unchecked densification in inner city areas, the rampant violation of building regulations, whimsical twists in land use and lease grant conditions, and the inappropriately laid down infrastructure, particularly gas and electricity conduits/wiring, in cities and suburban locations of Pakistan are some factors that need to be looked into.
WHERE TO BEGIN: Preparing a disaster management plan for each district of the country and developing human and physical capacities for implementation may appear an uphill task, but it is not impossible to materialize. Disaster management planning is an advanced professional discipline that helps the city and district managers to develop workable plans and efficient mechanisms to save life and property of citizens in a coordinated manner. Countries like Japan that confront natural disasters almost on a daily basis, know about these things very well. Amongst the various strengths and capacities, the process of training various types of citizens is one of the most distinguished features that may be studied for its relevance to our conditions. Besides, the contextual realities in Pakistan lay down several essential tasks.
Stocktaking and analysis of buildings and structures in the various localities are the first stage of work. Buildings must be analyzed for their current usage; occupancy and utility; structural stability; safety provisions, including fire escapes, exit ways and fire fighting systems; potential hazardous points comprising electricity boards, gas installation and harmful storages; parking lot study and hazard assessment of micro-environment in which buildings are located.
Standards must be developed for minimum conditions of survival of the building in a safe manner which must be evolved out from this comprehensive inventory. Stocktaking of under construction buildings and building plans need to be done in a similar manner. On a district wide scale, information pertinent to hazardous activities must be worked out. It is a common observation that hazardous activities have penetrated into city neighbourhoods without much hassle. The storage of gas cylinders, chemicals, inflammables and such things must be carefully noted and dealt with according to safety regulations.
After the careful analysis of data and facts related to the present disaster, the building codes and infrastructural planning procedures must be reviewed. This must be done in consonance with disaster mitigation requirements. For instance, while it is true that no building can claim to be earthquake proof, construction should be done in such a way that it must give adequate warning before collapse so that the inhabitants can safely leave the premises. In this regard, upscaling of the civil defence organization is a foremost requirement. Training of volunteers capable to take lead in an event of disaster is an important factor. Mass awareness and basic training at schools and colleges must be mobilized on priority. Trained teams comprising capable and equipped rescue workers must be raised and deployed along each town. Disaster preparedness drills should be a regular feature in this reference. All districts must develop a disaster mitigation and coordination centre located at a safe site. To provide institutional cover, a provision must be made to add a disaster management unit in the existing group of offices in the local government framework.
It must be remembered that disaster management is no ordinary area of significance. The UN General Assembly had declared the decade of 1990-2000 as the International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction (IDNDR). One of the goals of this attempt was to develop measures for the assessment, prediction, prevention and mitigation of natural disasters with an objection to minimize the loss of life and property of citizens. Several frameworks and procedures were also devised for common applications (figure 1& 2).
Many agencies and research institutions have developed state of the art expertise to deal with such situations. The United Nations Centre for Regional Development (UNCRD) is one such wing which gives assistance to developing countries. From man power training to collaborative assistance in preparation of mitigation plans, the input of the UNCRD has been useful in South and South East Asia, Africa and Latin America. If countries are prepared with clear identification of specific technical and scientific assistance, the role of such international institutions can be truly beneficial.
October 8, 2005: one of the most tragic days in the history of Pakistan. A series of earthquakes, aftershocks and hailstorms caused thousands of casualties. Tens of thousands of people were injured and displaced in the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT), parts of Punjab, the NWFP and Azad Jammu and Kashmir. The devastation also affected the Indian-held Kashmir. With the passage of time, news about a mounting death toll and the affected territories continued to appear in the print and electronic media. Images from the sites of destruction were heart-rending. A sizable number of collapsed buildings showed marks of shoddy construction with inadequate capacity to sustain any lateral loads. Initially deployed relief teams were ill-prepared to organize their actions to perform the most important task — saving lives of the people trapped under the rubble. Hapless commoners were the usual volunteers to clear the debris and to reach out to people in great distress. It was only after the arrival of trained rescue workers from Great Britain and Switzerland that the penetration to the inner quadrangles of rubble masses could be achieved. Utter confusion prevailed amongst various government agencies that reached the site of the collapsed building in the ICT. Unclear roles and responsibilities as well as the absence of proper equipment and training in rescue work were observed by all and sundry with dismay. The trauma of the people was further compounded by the smug remarks of the president who seemed to be satisfied at the pace and scale of relief work. A beggarly prime minister, who did not leave even this occasion to ‘beg for aid’, added insult to injury. Sights from remote areas confirmed the fact that poor people were the main victims of this disaster with their squalid abodes completely destroyed. Another painful aspect was the inaccessibility to higher terrains, remote mountainous locations and valley-based villages and hamlets having almost no land-based links. Needless to say that many locations were not even visited by any kind of relief and rescue teams.
