PESHAWAR: Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has chalked out a winter contingency plan for 2023-24 to grapple with a range of natural hazards during the winter season.

The plan, a copy of which is available with Dawn, has outlined strategies to manage hazards such as extreme low temperatures, fog/smog, snowfall, rainfall, landslides, flash floods, and seismic activities in the mountainous north and west.

The document stated that the province was prone to various winter hazards like heavy snowfall, extremely low temperatures, cold wave, avalanches, land sliding, heavy rainfall, fog and smog.

“The snow bound districts of the province are; Chitral Upper, Chitral Lower, Kohistan (Upper, Central and Lower), Mansehra, Battagram, Dir Upper, Dir Lower, Shangla, Swat, Abbottabad, Machai Sar and Bartooni in Torghar, Samana hill station in Hangu,” it said.

Director General PDMA Mohammad Qaisar Khan said that the winter contingency plan 2023-24 was initiated in October 2023, involving key stakeholders such as the federal government, provincial line departments, district administration, UNDP GLOF-II, and other development partners.

“Digital tools for data collection were developed and shared, including information of district/sector-specific hazards, vulnerability profiles, hazard impacts, damages, compensation details, resource mapping, need assessment, and coordination efforts,” he said.

He said this plan offered a comprehensive overview of the winter hazard profiles for each district in the province.

Published in Dawn, November 30th, 2023