By Noor Ali Wazir
Dera Ismail Khan: According to the details, in collaboration between the Tameer -e- Khalq Foundation & District Administration Dera Ismail Khan, a one-day “Project Launching Event” of the project “Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Change Adaptation project,” was arranged. The project “Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Change Adaptation,” has been started in two Villages councils of Daraban Tehsil, DI Khan, financed by International Organisation for Migration, (IOM). Men and women from diverse walks of life and thought participated in the event, along with the heads of numerous district-level government departments, social workers, Ex-local body representatives, NGOs, INGOs, community elders, and a significant amount of activists.
According to the provincial coordinator Dr. Niamat Ali, the purpose of the project’s Launching Event was to inform various stakeholders about the newly launched project. The goals and objectives of the project, as well as its methodology and key activities, were fully explained to the participants of the event by Dr. Niamat. Dr. Nimat Ali added that it’s crucial for the local population to be informed of potential risks and disasters in order to manage them and reduce the likelihood of human casualties as well as financial risks and losses from floods and other natural disasters. He further said that school based Disaster Risk Reduction activities will be carried out also, to reduce and manage the disasters and its risks at school’s level.
Muhammad Naeem Mehsud, the project manager for disaster risk reduction, welcomed participants and thanked them for coming to the opening ceremony. According to Muhammad Naeem Mehsud, the project would work with the residents of the two village councils of Daraban with the assistance of the district administration to improve the target villagers’ awareness and capacity in coping with floods and their damages. He gave a brief overview of the key project activities to date.
Mr. Ahad Yusuf, Additional Deputy Commissioner Relief Dera Ismail Khan, said that Dera Ismail Khan is an agricultural district and the junction point of three provinces and the floods in August last year had caused havoc in every aspect of life. Ahad Yusuf said that this project will sensitize the local people to deal with the coming natural calamities, adding that the district administration will self-monitor the training process of disaster committees at the village level so that The training objectives of disaster committees can be achieved and after the training process is over, people can deal with any flood disaster in an organized manner.
District Health Officer Dr. Mehmood Jan Bettani stated that in addition to the government’s efforts, the NGOs and INGOs’ efforts in the previous year’s flood were praiseworthy. He emphasised that the FDMA predicts significantly more hazardous floods this year than were experienced last year, so we need to organise and prepare for the upcoming floods.
Zahid Khattak from TKF, said that this project will form village level male and female committees in the two union councils of Tehsil Draban, namely Gundi Umar Khan and Draban, and similarly two committees will be formed at the village council level also. Training workshops will be organized for the members of the DRR committees, and in collaboration with local communities, community action plans will be prepared at the village level to deal with the risks of floods and, which will be presented to the relevant district and provincial government bodies.
Mr. Faseeh Abbasi, Assistant Commissioner Rud Kuhi, complimented the locals’ assistance to the government in the flood relief efforts as well as their participation in the flood relief efforts from the previous year. He gave the audience the assurance that the district government would keep helping flood victims in whatever way it could.
In his closing remarks for the programme, Mr. Nadir Nazar, Assistant Commissioner Draban, emphasised the importance of local people’s active participation in achieving the project’s goals of raising awareness, enhancing village level capacity, and developing community plans to reduce and manage the risk of disasters. He stated that various stages of the project would involve training workshops on pre-flood, during-flood, and post-flood procedures in order to increase the capacity of the local population. He extended his appreciation to the Tameer E Khalq Foundation and IOM for the project launching event.
On the multimedia screen, videos in the Urdu language were played for the audience in order to better orient them about climate change and calamities