Country Report of Islamic Republic of Pakistan

COUNTRY REPORTISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF PAKISTAN

Visiting Researcher(ASGHAR ALI JAMALI)
Deputy Director (Planning and Rescue)
PDMA/NDMA, Pakistan

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ABOUT PAKISTAN
Islamic Republic of Pakistan. Islamic-IAlso Known as

Jamahiriva-e- Pakistan.

Prime Minister

Shehbaz Sharif

Head of Government

Dr. Arif Alvi

CapitalIslamabad

Population(2023 est.) 232,690,000

Currenty Exchange Rate

1 USD equals 231.161 Pakistani Rupee

Official Religion

Islam

Official Name

Islamic Republic of Pakistan

Total Area (Sq Km)

796,096

Total Area (Sq Mi)

307,374

Monetary Unit

Pakistani rupee (PKR)

Population Rank

(2022) 5Population Projection 2030

242,564,000

Density: Persons Per Sq Mi(2022) 765.9

Density: Persons Per Sq Km(2022) 295.7

Urban-Rural Population

Urban: (2017) 36.4% • Rural: (2017) 63.6%

Life Expectancy At Birth
Literacy: Percentage Of Population Age 15 And
Over Literate

Male: (2020) 67.7 years • Female: (2020) 68.7years
Male: (2019) 69% • Female: (2019) 46%

GNI (U.S.$ ’000,000)(2020) 282,910

GNI Per Capita (U.S.$)(2020) 1,280

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PAKISTAN IN DISASTER CONTEXT
1.

BACKGROUND

In the last few decades, Pakistan has faced natural hazards such as
flooding, earthquakes and landslides that have escalated into humanitariandisasters, with the loss of lives, homes and livelihood. Apart from this,general risks such as drowning, fire, snake/insect bite, road accidents andelectrocution are some of the common causes of child suffering and deathsin the country.

Multi-Hazard Map of Pakistan

A community’s ability to prepare for and cope with natural
hazards can prevent disasters and save lives. But an unpreparedcommunity is unable to cope, resulting in massive loss of life and theundermining of decades of social and economic progress, especially forchildren.
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Natural hazards in Pakistan are likely to increase as a result ofclimate change and environmental degradation. More extreme weather
events, coupled with poor preparedness in communities, can only increase
the risks of humanitarian disasters.

2.

CLIMATE RISK INDEX OF PAKISTAN

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3.

MAJOR EARTHQUAKES IN PAKISTAN

However, different parts of the country are exposed to varying extentof disasters.

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Coastal areas are prone to swell waves and cyclones, the low-lying
plains of Indus river are increasingly prone to flooding, and the northern
regions are highly vulnerable to landslides, snowstorms, avalanches andearthquakes.

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Makran Coastal Highway Gwader, BalochistanThese events occur regularly and at all scales, thus increasing
vulnerabilities and creating cycles of poverty as they erode the resilience ofthe most vulnerable inhabiting highly exposed areas. Most damaging eventsin the past have been cyclones, droughts, floods, and landslides; 75% of alldisasters between 1980 and 2013 have been the result of hydrometeorological hazards. However, seismic events are still a particularconcern due to the vicinity of the Himalayan orogenic zone, activity of which
has triggered severe large-scale earthquakes. For example, the pastearthquake measured 7.2 on the moment magnitude scale resulted incatastrophic losses in Kashmir in 2005.
The Kashmir earthquake killed nearly 75,000 people and destroyed
3 million homes partly due to massive-scale landslides (Naranjo, 2008).
Furthermore, the tectonic activity of the main plates may trigger the othercomplex fault zones which have the potential for severe failures. For
example, the earthquake of 2008 in Balochistan, where the strike-slip failureof the Chaman fault (driven by the collision of the Indian and Eurasian plateswhich further interact with the Afghan block) caused a main shock of Mw
6.4 which further cascaded into 1185 total recorded shocks.

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Kashmir Earthquake, 2005

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4.

National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA)

National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) is the leadagency at the Federal level to deal with the whole spectrum of Disaster
Management activities. It is the executive arm of the National Disaster
Management Commission (NDMC) which has been established under theChairmanship of the Prime Minister as the apex policy making body in thefield of Disaster Management. In the event of a disaster, all stakeholders
including Government Ministries/Departments/Organizations, ArmedForces, INGOs, NGOs, UN Agencies work through and form part of theNDMA to conduct one window operations. It is established under theNational Disaster Management Act – 2010 and functions under thesupervision of National Disaster Management Commission (NDMC) which
is headed by the Prime Minister of Islamic Republic of Pakistan. NDMA
manages the whole Disaster Management Cycle (DMC) which includes
Preparedness, Mitigation, Risk Reduction, Relief and Rehabilitation. ANational Disaster Management Plan (NDMP) is prepared and is followed
towards provision of better services to the affected ones.

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IMPACTS OF DISASTER IN PAKISTAN5.

ECONOMIC IMPACT OF DISASTER

Several large-scale disasters have affected Pakistan and thedevelopment of the country’s economy. As a disaster-prone country, with ahigh exposure to hydro meteorological, and geophysical hazards withreoccurring and seasonal characteristics, damages caused by earthquakes,flooding, droughts, landslides and storms are not uncommon (ADRC, 2016).
Disasters have been found to have a profound impact on economic growth,harming not only human capital but also infrastructure and assets in a manner
which has been established to have negative effects on the annual GDP.
In 1998-2001, a severe period of drought reduced the GDP growthby 50% (LEAD, 2015). This was followed by the Kashmir earthquake of2005, the flooding of 2010, earthquake in 2011, and another severe flooding
in 2012. On average, these reoccurring disasters have led to 1.16 percent
reduction of the national GDP annually, and have forced households to divert
resources from productive sectors towards rebuilding and recovery activities.
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6.

SOCIAL IMPACT OF DISASTER.

Disasters have also had adverse impacts on human life. The floodingof 2010 affected an estimated of 18 million people, caused 1984 casualties,
displaced 150,000 families and damaged or destroyed approximately 1.8
million houses across the 78 impacted districts (WHO, 2011). Out of the9,721 health facilities in the country, 515 were reported damaged ordestroyed. However, most severe impacts were caused by the disruption on
the delivery of health services as the lack of medical equipment, medicationand displaced staff were restricting the effectiveness of relief efforts. Also,
displacement persisted several months after the flood depending on the area.

2010 floods hit map of Pakistan

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2010 Flooding in Pakistan

By August 2010, almost half a million cases of dysentery and otherdiseases had been reported as a result of the flooding, and approximately 3.5
million children were estimated to be at risk of contracting diarrhea, cholera,
and other water-borne diseases (Looney, 2012). During the months following
the flooding, cases of Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever, dengue, cholera,malaria, measles, polio and diphtheria started unfolding 2011. Such healthimpacts and losses of livelihoods following cascading disasters affecthouseholds due to the forced need to redirect resources to recovery activities,
and also the children of low-income backgrounds are forced to drop out ofeducation to seek employment opportunities to support their families (LEAD,2015).

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7.

DISASTER RISK REDUCTION AND CLIMATE ACTION

While the Indian Ocean Tsunami 2004 is thought to have promoted
DRM advancement in affected countries such as Sri Lanka, Maldives andThailand, the Kashmir Earthquake in October, 2005, created a sense ofurgency for establishing a proactive and comprehensive DRR system inPakistan. The major flood event in 2010 has expedited further actions todrive DRR momentum into full implementation. The following chapters
capture highlights of the legacy of past attempts and current status in DRR,
as well as looks into the implementation challenges and priorities for thefuture.
8.

GOVERNMENT INTERVENTIONSPage 13

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9.

ISSUES IN IMPLEMENTATION OF DRR AND CLIMATE POLICY.

With increased frequency and intensity of disaster events, emergency
response capacity and more amplified preparedness interventions have to bestrengthened, especially for floods as recurrent hazards. Moreover, fordisaster risk reduction, actions should be emphasized by establishingcoherent plans, with the division of functions and roles between multi-tiered
DRM structures and concerned agencies at different levels. Revisiting
DRM institutional arrangements and mandates at all levels should beprioritized to clarify the division of tasks and chain of incident command.
While each district has formulated a District Disaster Risk Mitigation (DRM)
Plan, putting the plan into action has been hampered in part by lack ofresources. Thus, addressing financial challenges is another critical area.
Direct allocation from federal level for provincial and district DRR activities
is not in tune with the current budget system, and PDMAs and DDMAsthemselves have faced serious impediment in mobilizing locally-generated
funds for DRR, amidst various competing demands. Alignment of donor
priorities with national strategies and more effective resource allocation fromdonor-funded schemes should be explored to channel financial resource, andthus realizing planning into materialized actions. Disaster risk financestrategy is compulsory for Pakistan to address the significant financial andfiscal costs arising from disasters and climate change.

10.

FUTURE CHALLENGES AND PRIORITY ISSUES.

Challenges related to water security have reached their criticalthreshold. Various factors are acknowledged to be contributing to thesituation; poor water data and information for water resource monitoring andmanagement, weak processes for water resources planning and allocation,
absence of environmentally sustainable water utilization, widespreadpollution, and low water productivity in agriculture (World Bank, 2019).
Coupled with increasing flood and drought risks, sustainable water
management by adopting multi-disciplinary solutions, with basin-scale
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multi-stakeholder water planning, will be crucial. Risk-sensitive spatialplanning is still hindered by the lack of technical capacity, comprehensive
disaster and climate risk information, and due to complex governance andurban development systems. However, the plethora of government agencies
involved in DRM and DRR at federal, provincial and district level as well as
non-state actors provided both, opportunities as well as challenges. FromDRR perspective, Pakistan has achieved under the four priorities of theSendai Framework. It also highlights some of the key issues/challenges ofcreating coherence among the key global frameworks at the country level 7
makes recommendations for strengthing the overall institutions and other
Disaster Risk Management (DRM) governance by Government institutions
and other stakeholders at national, sub-national, and local levels in Pakistan
also there is a lack of long-term planning for flood risk reduction andactivities remain extremely centralized.

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