ISLAMABAD, Aug 17 (APP): Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Climate Change, Malik Amin Aslam Monday said lives and livelihoods of mountain communities in Pakistan’s north are grappled with growing risk of flash floods and glacial lake outburst floods due to rapidly melting glaciers.
“Protecting the lives and livelihoods of mountain communities, most of them living in abject poverty conditions, is top priority of the present government”, he told the participants at the handing-over ceremony of the high-tech modetn equipments used for the disaster risk management in the mountain areas, said a press release.
These equipments will be deployed at the District Emergency Response Centre (DERC) of the Gilgit-Baltistan Disaster Management Authority (GBDMA) and used to help boost disaster resilience and preparedness of the mountain communities in Gilgit-Baltistan.
Held at Shigar area of Gigit-Baltistan, the ceremony was organized by the United Nations Development Programme in collaboration with Ministry of Climate Change under the Glacial Lake Outburst Floods (GLOF-II), which was attended by representatives from the government and non-governmental organizations and local community representarives.
The DERC equipment was formally handed over to GBDMA Director General Wali Khan, who said access to advanced technologies and financial resources provided by the climate change ministry would help mitigate vulnerabilities of the mountain communities.
Addressing the ceremony, Wali Khan also thanked the Ministry of Climate Change and UNDP for their timely support for streamlining the communication system of GBDMA and District Disaster Management Authorities (DDMAs) in any unforeseen situation.
The GBDMA director general mentioned that the Gilgit Baltistan was a backward area, having no connection to far-flung areas.
“However, with the support of communication equipment, the district administrations and DDMAs will be better positioned to respond and coordinate. Furthermore, he requested the chief guest for further strengthening of GBDMA and DDMAs through the provision of heavy machineries,” he told the participants.
Malik Amin Aslam also thanked and lauded all the stakeholders of Gilgit Baltistan for their keen interest in GLOF-II project interventions focused on resilience and food security building.
He further mentioned that he had personally visited most of the vulnerable/ project areas and met both direct and indirect beneficiaries, where the project could play its vital role in minimizing the risk from GLOF.
He further mentioned that the project was spending a total of approximately Rs6.2 billion with a breakdown of 1.6 to the communities, 3.5 billion for equipment and 1.1 billion for institution capacity building in Gilgit Baltistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
This funding would take place over the span of 5 years, where 24 valleys would be targeted.
Malik Amin also mentioned that through GLOF-II project, each vulnerable community would receive the GLOF disaster fund of US$50,000 in order to respond to any unforeseen climate change induced disasters.
The total of 1,000,000 population of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Gilgit Baltistan would be directly benefiting from the project interventions, out of which, 50% was female population, he added.
Malik Amin Aslam remarked that, “I am optimistic that the DERC equipment will strengthen the capacities of GBDMA at district and tehsil level to deal with any disaster situation with full zeal and zest.”
Later, the attendees to the ceremony further proceeded to view the showcased DERC equipments which included, communication equipment, rescue and response items – boats, back up power supply, IT equipment and communication items.
The aim of providing this equipment to GBDMA/Home Department was to strengthen their capacity to deal with any disasters across Gilgit Baltistan, he concluded.