ISLAMABAD:Special Assistant to the Prime Minister (SAPM) on Climate Change Malik Amin Aslam Thursday said Pakistan was among the top 10 countries in the world which were badly impacted by the climate change and prone towards disasters and the only strategy to mitigate the climate risk was disaster risk reduction (DRR).
Addressing a webinar at the Pakistan Humanitarian Forum, he said it was high time to speak more on disaster risk reduction and to come up with robust policies and programmes to mitigate the risk of climate and disaster, said a media release.
Speaking on the occasion, Former Senator of Pakistan Javed Jabbar said over the years, Pakistan managed to cope with disasters such as 2005 earthquake, floods in 2021, pandemic in 2020 but there was high need to work more on disaster preparedness and mitigation at all levels.
He further added that, there was need to expedite efforts at regional level such as the forum like SAARC which could play an important role for extensive cooperation for disaster mitigation and preparedness for South Asian countries.
The Pakistan Humanitarian Forum marked international disaster risk reduction day by organizing virtual session with the focus on current year theme “International cooperation for developing countries to reduce their disaster risk and disaster losses”. The session was attended by imminent speakers, intellectuals, development, and humanitarian practitioners.
Natural calamities were unavoidable so there was a need to focus more on right policies and practices which might help to stop natural calamities turning into disasters said, Exective Director SDPI Abid Qayyum Sulehri.
He added that the country should build alliances both at regional and international level to cope up with climate change to mitigate the risk of disasters.