PESHAWAR, Oct 18: The government has decided to extend the scope of the Federal Disaster Management Authority to the provinces. A senior official said that the decision was taken in a meeting held in Islamabad a few days ago. He said that it would also be extended to the district level to cope with natural calamities in a satisfactory manner.

He said that consultations with representatives of the four provinces were in progress for the formation of disaster management authorities in the provinces, the official said.

He said that the federal government had hinted that the authority would be responsible for providing quick relief to survivors of floods and earthquakes.

The authority would also devise plans to predict natural disasters and plan necessary steps to cope with emerging situations.

He said that the provincial government had already taken steps to establish disaster management authority at the provincial level.

“The NWFP government has set up a committee to prepare a disaster management plan,” said officials. They said that the federal government had also asked the provincial governments to submit information about losses incurred by people in previous disasters. It was meant to accord priority to disaster-prone areas in future planning, said officials.

“This would enable the government to put in place measures in the disaster-prone areas beforehand and minimise the losses in the event of natural disasters,” the official said.

As a first step, he said that data regarding human and property losses in calamity-hit areas were being collected and certain measures would be taken. The authorities to be established at the provincial level would have the representation from all the departments with a view to involve them in the disaster planning and relief work to lessen the losses.

He said that according to a survey, 30 per areas of Pakistan happened to be disaster-prone, because these areas remain in danger of being blooded, which needed to be given more attention. He said that the Frontier province had a century-old disaster management plan.

However, the plan had been shelved, the official said. “Earlier, the government had studied the pre-independence plan because it was more relevant to local needs,” he said.