Introduction and Approaches of Disaster Risk Reduction in Pakistan

Abstract

In Pakistan, the massive 2005 Kashmir earthquake was a turning point to rethink and restructure the disaster risk management system. As Pakistan has a long history of natural hazards occurrence that range from geophysical events to hydro-meteorological processes. Almost every year, the impacts of disasters put extra pressure on the country budget. Looking to the transition in economic system, the importance of disaster risk reduction (DRR) was realized and the issue was properly addressed and the national disaster management commission (NDMC) was established in 2006 to proactively respond to various disasters. In this regard, national disaster management authority (NDMA), a focal body was assigned a task to implement policies, strategies and programs for disaster risk reduction. Eventually, national disaster risk management framework (NDRMF) was developed in 2007, which provides guidelines for all the key stakeholders and in 2013 national disaster risk reduction policy (NDRRP) was developed. However, there is a need of sustainable socio-economic and environmental development to properly mainstream DRR in the policies and programs and especially to cater the poor and marginalized people of the country. To make the country more resilient, to a wide range of disasters, there is an emergent and consistent need of enhancement in social, physical, economic and institutional capacity at national, regional and local level. It is also pertinent that stress should remain on multi-scale and cross-sectoral disaster risk reduction approach. This chapter is divided into seven sections. Section 1.1 introduces the disaster risk reduction approaches practiced at global and country level. Section 1.2 highlights the background and progress of disaster risk reduction agenda at global level, whereas Sect. 1.3 highlights the disasters in the context of Pakistan. Section 1.4 of the chapter describes the disaster risk reduction legislations and institutional set-up in Pakistan, while Sect. 1.5 analytically discusses various risk reduction approaches applied in Pakistan. Section 1.6 discusses the key challenges faced Pakistan in mainstreaming disaster risk reduction, whereas conclusion is given in the final section.