PESHAWAR: Just as the monsoon season is about to set in with more rains threatening to increase water level in rivers that could cause floods, the disaster management body in the province has also dusted off and put the same old contingency plan on the table.

The Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) plans to set up a control room, turn some schools and government buildings into shelters and provide same relief items like tents, blankets and mats.

Hearing about the contingency plan from the PDMA spokesperson feels like a déjà vu. Monsoon season has become synonymous with floods and loss in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. This year, however, PDMA claims it has prepared a contingency plan for the rainy season and enhanced relief funds for the most sensitive districts.

PDMA says relief funds increased for most sensitive districts

“We have increased funds from Rs60 million to Rs100 million for districts declared sensitive in the monsoon season,” said PDMA spokesperson Latif Rehman. The funds have been increased for Peshawar, Nowshera, Charsadda, DI Khan, Chitral, Swat, Shangla, Dir Lower and Dir Upper districts. These are going to be on the priority list of PDMA.

“In case of any disaster, safe places have been identified which would be declared as camps to provide shelter to people affected by floods,” said the authority’s spokesman.

The PDMA is going to release additional funds for the sensitive districts, but losses incurred by last year’s floods have still not been compensated fully and there were protests by the affected people in Chitral.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, which has yet to recover from the losses incurred due to floods in upper part of the province, especially Chitral, is less than a month’s time going to receive rains, increasing the threat of floods again.

Ironically, like every year the PDMA’s contingency plan includes the usual procedure of setting up of control rooms in districts and the provincial capital, declaring some government buildings like schools possible safe shelters in case of displacement of people due to flooding of residential areas. The relief items also include blankets, tents, mats, etc.

The PDMA has restricted itself to short-term relief activities instead of pre-disaster preparation and planning.

“Equipment has been installed at the Kabul and Swat rivers to monitor rising water levels and control rooms established in districts to better coordinate in case of emergency, if any,” said the PDMA spokesperson.

The raging water of Swat, Indus and Kabul rivers in monsoon poses threat to parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The Swat and Indus water gives more than 12 hours for the responders to assess it and prepare accordingly, but water of Kabul River can reach in just six hours to adjoining and most populated districts, including Charsadda, Peshawar and Nowshera. Yet, no extraordinary measures are planned throughout the year to reduce the impact of floods in these districts or the hilly districts where roads and bridges once washed away take years to rebuild.

Despite being in the eye of the storm and facing disastrous effects, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has an obsolete early warning system. Experts admit the province has an obsolete radar system in DI Khan and the weather forecasting room in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is ill-equipped.

With a poor warning system, preparation is just restricted to declaring districts sensitive, setting up control rooms and distributing tents and blankets to people, if possible, after a disaster and it has been happening for the last so many years.

Published in Dawn, June 22th, 2016