PESHAWAR, July 12: The NWFP government will establish a disaster management agency with branches in all districts to deal with emergencies, according to sources. The province has prepared a plan, which will be implemented as a five-year project to upgrade the flood emergency relief cell currently managed by the NWFP Board of Revenue member.

The project will aim at undertaking measures to protect people, livestock and natural resources and prevent human suffering by minimizing disaster risk with the help of communities in vulnerable districts.

The United Nations Development Programme, said the sources, had helped the provincial government prepare the new disaster management plan.

“The province has a disaster management plan since 1977 but hardly any department, except the Board of Revenue, knows about it,” admitted an official.

The need to have a new disaster management plan to deal with emergencies through social mobilization, said the official, was felt in the backdrop of the heavy snowfall and rains that left at least 432 people dead and rendered thousands of families homeless in the province during last winter.

The NWFP disaster management project, which will be implemented after its approval by Chief Minister Akram Khan Durrani, involves an estimated cost of Rs250 million. It involved no foreign funds.

It entails setting up of a disaster management agency and 24 emergency operation cells at the district headquarters.

A disaster management committee, headed by the chief minister, will be formed. The nazims will head the committees at the district level.

The cells and committees will work in coordination to mitigate adverse effects of natural disasters and develop strategies for meeting eventualities.

Of the project’s cost, over Rs205 million would be spent on establishment of and expenditure incurred by the emergency cells and salaries of 346 employees to be recruited in this regard.

About Rs45 million will be utilized for improving infrastructure and carrying out emergency work during times of disaster.

The project also envisages formulation of a disaster management plan for each district.

The district plans will envisage organizing and strengthening of communities at the grassroots through social mobilization.

The new entities will establish links with non-government and media organizations for raising awareness and developing partnership between public and private sector entities to effectively deal with natural disasters.

“The federal government will help fund a number of community-based disaster management programmes in the districts at risk for vulnerable segments of population, such as elders, women, children and incapacitated people,” the sources said.

The provincial government, said a planner, would need to improve the infrastructure damaged or devastated by earthquakes, rains and snowfall during the 2004-5 financial year.

“The project would aim at enhancing the capacity and strengthening organizations at the provincial, district, town and tehsil levels to overcome risks, particularly in the disaster-prone districts,” said an official.