ISLAMABAD: CEO Agha Khan Agency of Habitat (AKAH) Pakistan Nusrat Nasab called on Chairman National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) Lieutenant General Inam Haider Malik here on Monday.
Various aspects of collaboration pertaining to habitat planning and disaster risk mitigation at community level especially in mountainous region of Pakistan were discussed in details during the meeting, says a news release.
Nasab apprised the Chairman of AKAH’s network to help communities with pre-disaster education and emergency plans to respond natural disasters and effects of climate change. She told that currently AKAH was working in over 100 villages, towns and cities on habitat planning initiatives.
She briefed about the flood donation of $10 million for affectees in flood-hit areas with exclusive mention of AKAH’s flood relief efforts mainly in Gilgit Baltistan (GB) and Chitral and construction of 3,000 prefab houses in GB.
Chairman NDMA acknowledged the humanitarian efforts by AKAH.
While delivering his remarks on NDMA’s vision to adapt a re-modelled structure, he underscored the need of an effective framework for geo-monitoring and implementation of response and evacuation plans within scope of Hazard Vulnerability Risk Assessment (HVRA) in GLOF-prone areas due to prevalence of intense heatwaves in region.
He also underlined the importance of disaster mitigation and adaptation as well as evacuation plans for mountaineers and tourists in case of any natural disaster.
He also mentioned that envisioned National Institute of Disaster Management (NIDM) would play a key role in training and research in DRM and indicated that its chapter would also be set up in Gilgit with support of AKAH aligned with global practices.