UN And Government Of Pakistan Working Together To Protect Against Future Flood Damage

After unprecedented floods in
Pakistan killed 1,974 people, damaged 1.65 million houses, and destroyed
2.24 million hectares of crop land earlier this year, the United Nations
has continued to partner with of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan to help
the country increase flood resiliency.


The Regional High-Level Expert Group Meeting, organized by United Nations
Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), the United
Nations Country Team (UNCT) and the Government of the Islamic Republic of
Pakistan, took place 9-10 November in Islamabad, Pakistan.


Gathered experts addressed the main challenges of strengthening a culture
of disaster risk reduction in Pakistan's development policies and of
formulating a plan of action for the establishment of a regional
cooperation mechanism.


"We have to make our communities more resilient to all vulnerabilities and
future disasters," said Noeleen Heyzer, UN Under-Secretary-General and
Executive Secretary of ESCAP. "We have to make safer the lives of our
people, particularly the poor. In effect, we have to build a culture of
prevention and systems of social protection to address old and new
vulnerabilities."


Mr. Nadeem Ahmed, Chairman of Pakistan's National Disaster Management
Authority, gave an overview of relief and rescue operations, disbursement
of cash assistance, early recovery plan, and the reconstruction and
rehabilitation strategies being conceptualized.


During this Regional High-level meeting, experts on disaster risk reduction
discussed pre- and post-disaster issues including agriculture and
livestock, disaster resilient housing, urban and land use planning, flood
forecasting, education, advocacy and community-based disaster risk
management. Experts noted that the destruction caused by the floods, which
affected more than 20.18 million people, was compounded by existing
humanitarian and development needs within the country.


"Pakistan was already facing an internally displaced persons crisis and
long term development challenges before the floods occurred," Dr Heyzer
said. "Despite these huge challenges there have been major successes
achieved in people returning to their home areas. Today Pakistan urgently
needs not just a reconstruction and recovery plan, but a strategy to build
a new future."


Representatives from across Asia and the Pacific region - including China,
Bangladesh and the Republic of Korea - shared experiences on building and
improving disaster resilient communities and cities, citing practical
examples.


World Bank and the Asian Development Bank representatives highlighted the
findings of the Post Disaster Needs assessment survey which fond the
Pakistan floods caused a US $9.7 billion in damages to infrastructure,
farms, homes and other direct and indirect losses.


As the final outcome of the meeting, the tripartite core-group,
ESCAP-UNCT-GoP, will develop a mechanism to incorporate disaster risk
reduction into early recovery plans and mainstream disaster risk reduction
in to future development plans of Pakistan.


Participating regional and international organizations include Asian
Development Bank, Asian Disaster Preparedness Center (ADPC), Asian Pacific
Space Cooperation Organization (APSCO), International Centre for Water
Hazard and Risk Management (ICHARM), United Nations International Strategy
for Disaster Reduction (ISDR), Typhoon Committee, World Bank, World
Meteorological Organization (WMO) and Microsoft.


Source:

UN ESCAP