Rumour Has it: Disaster Management in Pakistan

Nilofer Qazi January 31 2012

In a country of 180 million, in which many live in congested and poorly developed coastlines, cities, villages, mountains and river beds- we have millions of citizens vulnerable-  these vulnerabilities can be mitigated if there is the will. The Risk reduction planning which sensible countries usually adopt , involves either removing  large populations from  these ‘risky’ areas or like in over populated countries like Bangladesh and Pakistan should ‘learn to live with the risk’ and reduce the risks of  loss of life as best they can. Thus for example, in the disaster prone areas, populations and the service delivery mechanisms should be ‘prepared’ and the public servants should be trained and most importantly the local population should be able to manage possible disasters which will reoccur too ensure protection of life at least. 

Disaster management in Pakistan is in a mess. The 2005 earthquake in Pakistan was an opportunity for Pakistan to seriously develop professional disaster management systems.  The EQ05 saw an incredible response by ordinary people, the donors, and to some extent the government functionaries involved, through the rescue, relief, early recovery, and reconstruction phases of any post disaster response.  I mention all these ‘stages’ of post disaster management because like in the other areas of public services, disaster management is also a complicated technical field which requires specific expertise to manage, plan and execute smoothly and coherently  to serve the people it is intended for.

Our State managers on the other hand, seem to think otherwise. In Pakistan Disaster Risk Management DRM constitutes only what the public ‘visibly sees’ (rescue and relief phases) the army jawan rescuing a poor stranded person from the hills of Kashmir or an old person drowning in the flood waters of Sindh. The numerous camps dotted all over the country, managed primarily nongovernmental organizations  the UN and many civil society groups, are also hallmarks of inadequate and persistent absence of systems. This is not DRM. The most difficult and costly part is the restitution of normal life for those affected After they have been rescued and most importantly mitigate reoccurring damage and loss of life.

Notwithstanding government’s lack of  prioritizing DRM, in terms of management for instance DRM platforms have been dominated by the army’s involvement because of the rescue relief phases which necessarily requires their services, it is assumed  civilian chairman’s would not be able to instruct the military when assistance would be required, as a result, the entire framework of focus in these organizations remained limited. Thus instead of the necessary highly technical and trained staff necessary, ill prepared bureaucrats unable to technically understand, plan or develop post rescue DRM systems continue to reign.  Recommendations are abound post EQ05, and studies undertaken by many, government, donors and civil society organizations including Japan, in which DRM is extremely sophisticated, have not been heeded. Pakistan requires a professional organization, which is empowered; financially viable to attract sound professionals who can execute various DRM human resources to ensure millions of Pakistanis living in terrible danger have a chance.

We currently have three federal DRM organizations!  Earthquake Reconstruction Rehabilitation Authority ERRA, the National Disaster Management Authority NDMA and now most recently a Ministry of Disaster Management! All of these institutions have little technical strength in disaster management and are happily completely reliant on the UN and the many foreign Donors to carry the bulk of their functions.  While the donors and the UN provides government the necessary technical expertise it is an unsustainable model which is inefficient and criminally costly. The donors have little incentive to demand the Pakistani government develop a single coherent organization, technically sound with a robust oversight system which can monitor billions of dollars that are necessary to restitute millions affected. The United Nations which provides the ‘stop gap’ capacity for deficiencies across government departments, federal and provincially, has absolutely no incentive to develop sustainable disaster management professionals in government which would replace their services .The government departments find it ‘easier’ to subcontract their responsibilities to ‘consultants’ which provides the necessary technical and delivery expertise to carry out routine services for the general public. This criminal and negligent behavior by the Pakistani state managers is part of the larger Pakistani malaise of laziness and the dependency since the donor raj. The absence of the self reliant ‘ethics’ in Pakistan has resulted in  multiple chaotic and incoherent disaster management systems which has left everyone in the business- confused.

The 18^th amendment has also adds further incoherence to this mess by insisting on devolving the disaster management planning independent from federal oversight. This challenges the logic that disaster management   must be applied strategically across the nation rationally. The 18^th amendment undermines the coherence of national planning and monitoring for a national standard.  In any other sane polity the overlapping, contradictory legislations would be immediately discussed, negotiated and sorted out in light of the critical importance. But not in Pakistan, the parallel systems continue, the donors fund multiple systems, the government and United Nations functionaries continue to  ad hoc ‘ support ‘ ,  learning little from ‘lessons learned’ and repeat the same mistakes . The ‘cost’ is borne by the most vulnerable who have little voice or influence over there elected and unelected ‘disaster management professionals’. The only beneficiaries in this scenario are the ‘hired help’ to help those who have nothing to begin with.