Staff Report
ISLAMABAD: The federal government has ensured robust legislative amendments to strengthen the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) for its efficient working in various disasters and natural calamities over the past five years.
The NDMA has implemented effective management of multiple man-made and climate-induced disasters including heavy rains, snowfall, flash floods, hill torrents, glacial lake outburst floods, urban flooding, tropical cyclones, and earthquakes in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), Balochistan and Gilgit Baltistan, an NDMA official told APP.
He added that in addition, the NDMA was intimately involved in responding to two major national and international emergencies, locusts and COVID-19.
The steps taken by the government to make the NDMA more functional included amendments to NDMA Act and Subsuming of ERRA into NDMA.
During the 5th National Disaster Management Conference (NDMC) held under the chairmanship of the Prime Minister on March 28, 2018, subsuming of ERRA into NDMA and subsequent amendments to NDMA Act 2010 were approved, he added.
The process involved some legal aspects that were being addressed whereas being a mandatory requirement, so far, the Provincial Assemblies of Balochistan and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa had also passed a resolution in terms of Article 144.
Moreover, consequently, a draft summary for the CCLC was submitted to the Prime Minister, being Minister Incharge of NDMA, for approval.
The enhanced structure of NDMA would improve the overall performance of the Authority, the NDMA official said.
The Federal Government, he added, had from time to time assigned additional tasks to NDMA including Locust Control Operation, COVID-19 Response, Vaccine Procurement, and Storm Water Project for controlling urban flooding in Karachi under Karachi Transformation Plan (KTP) were few examples.
To a question, he said the Federal Government despite tight financial resources had always fulfilled the budgetary requirement of the NDMA.
The Federal Government had approved and consented a number of national and international initiatives aiming at disaster risk reduction and mutual collaboration.
As per the directives from the Prime Minister, involvement of Parliamentarians and top judiciary in the affairs and activities of the NDMA from time to time resulted in improvement in the overall performance of the Authority, he noted.
