PESHAWAR: The Provincial Disaster Management Authority has declared 11 districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa the most vulnerable to the monsoon floods in light of the ‘vulnerability and risk assessments’.

Unveiling the Monsoon Contingency Plan 2017 here at the authority’s provincial headquarters, PDMA director general Mohammad Khalid told reporters that the contingency planning was meant to ensure coordination among various stakeholders in case of any emergency.

“A coordinated response leads to fewer damages in case of any disaster,” he said.

The PDMA director general said Peshawar, Charsadda, Nowshera, Dera Ismail Khan, Chitral, Swat, Shangla, Upper and Lower Dir and Upper and Lower Kohistan were the most vulnerable districts to monsoon flooding and Lakki Marwat, Karak, Haripur, Malakand, Tank and Bannu the moderately vulnerable ones.

He added that eight districts, including Battagram, Torghar, Abbottabad, Mansehra, Mardan, Hangu, Buner and Swabi, had low vulnerability to floods.

PDMA says govt gave it Rs1 billion for managing disaster

“The metrological data based on global climatic conditions and sea surface temperature has suggested that the monsoon rainfall is likely to initially remain normal and then fall little below normal over the northern Pakistan.

However, few weather systems with erratic behaviour cannot be ruled out,” he said.

The 62-pages monsoon contingency plan noted that a new feature of matrix ranking of districts was prepared in coordination with the Centre for Disaster Preparedness and Mitigation at the University of Peshawar.

It added that the districts ranked higher on matrix would be allocated more resources for such scenarios.

The document also worked out the ‘high, medium and low flood impact scenarios’ for the province in the monsoon season.

The scenarios based on the 2010 super flood suggested that 363,766 households were likely to be affected throughout the province in case of high floods, 121,258 households in case of medium floods and 40,421 households in case of low floods.

According to it, flood emergency control rooms have been established in all districts, while the provincial emergency operation centre will remain open for 24/7 coordination.

A sum of Rs1 billion has been made available to the PDMA for dealing with disaster situation during the current monsoon season, while funds have also placed at the disposal of the district disaster management units across the province.

PDMA director (relief) Abdul Basit said the authority had provided 87 boats and 157 outboard motors to various army formations in Peshawar, Charsadda, Nowshera, Swat and Dera Ismail Khan to use in case of emergency.

He said the PDMA was also providing funds for annual repairs of those boats and OBMs.

The director said Rescue 1122 had also a large inventory of flood fighting equipment including fiberglass boats, OMBs, life jackets and de-watering pumps at its disposal in Peshawar, Mardan, Dera Ismail Khan and Swat districts.

He said the provincial irrigation department was carrying out 17 ongoing and 11 new flood mitigation projects valuing Rs10 billion across the province.

The director said in their respective inventories, all districts of the province had shown 154,00 tents, 24,727 blankets, 2,200 mattresses, 33,113 sheets, 7,494 jerry cans and coolers and 329 buckets, while the PDMA own inventory was in addition to it.

Published in Dawn, July 6th, 2017