Pakistani Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani Wednesday stressed the need for addressing risks posed by natural and human induced disasters including terrorism, in order to ensure the continuity of economic growth.
Addressing the opening ceremony of the first National Disaster Risk Management Conference here at the PM Secretariat, Gillani said, "We must realize the fact that disasters threaten sustained economic growth of the society and the country."
The function was organized by National Disaster Management Authority to mark the Disaster Awareness Day observed annually after the catastrophic earthquake which struck country's northern areas in October 2005, killing 73,000 people and leaving 3.5 million homeless, official Associated Press of Pakistan reported.
Gillani said Pakistan's national economy suffered losses of billions of dollars due to various natural catastrophe like floods, droughts, landslides, and also the human induced disasters such as the menace of terrorism in recent years.
He said the quake of 2005 caused a loss of over 5.2 billion U.S. dollars. He said the government had to divert precious resources from other development priorities in order to provide relief and response to the disaster survivors.
Gillani said the National Disaster Management Ordinance 2007 provided legal cover to the new system, under which the National Disaster Management Commission had been established as the apex policy-making and implementing body for disaster risk management.
Gillani said in order to reduce disaster losses, Pakistan needed to strengthen its early warning capacities especially for droughts and flooding which occurred frequently and caused high impact.
Source: Xinhua
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