Abstract:
Nowadays local, national, regional, international, continental and global cooperation and coordination are very important in disaster management. By synergizing the efforts among lead organizations and departments, a proactive plan could be formulated for the future disaster risk reduction (DRR) activities. DRR is totally dependent on effective cooperation and coordination among various stake holders which mitigates the loss of life and property. This research is all about the appropriate and suitable coordination among all the frontline organizations for effective response during any disaster. The research has been conducted to evaluate District Disaster Management Plan of District Nowshera with reference to 2010 Floods with an aim to find out gaps in its implementation while facing the drastic situation. The facts and figures have been collected from various departments, by having number of sessions and meetings with different officials of the Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), District Administration Nowshera, heads of various line departments. These formal and informal in-house discussions were done with a view to address those imbalances during any emergency for mounting an effective and befitting response in a disaster; particularly the floods. The study finds that coordination is influenced by a variety of factors such as Organization, Information management, Communication, Situation awareness, Equipment and their capacity. This research proposes incident command system and formulation of different response teams e.g. Early Warning (EW), Response, Shelters, Security, Need Assessment and Damage Assessment etc. to minimize the problems of coordination and synergize the efforts by all departments in case of any disaster. Reportedly, it was also revealed that during 2010 floods there was no plan prepared prior to floods, as it was not at all expected by the local as well as provincial administration to have disaster like flood situation. During 2012 the District administration had been able to formulate the Monson contingency plan but there was no proper disaster risk management plan existing in Nowshera to tackle the emerging situation like 2010 floods in future. The outcome of this research is in the form of a Disaster Risk Reduction Plan for District Nowshera which will be helpful for the local administration to tackle any kind of situation like 2010 floods in future. The plan is prepared to help the District Administration to focus on the essentials and critical aspects of both preparedness and response.
