3,500 people trained in disaster management

MANSEHRA: The District Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) Coordinator Harir Shah said Wednesday that 3,500 male and female volunteers had been imparted training to cope with natural calamities in Mansehra and the number would be raised to 150,000 in next couples of years.

He was speaking to media in a programme, organised to test the skills of the male and female volunteers trained. The official said the national and provincial disaster management authorities had been established through a presidential ordinance in 2006 but they started work in 2008.

He said that the same year, two districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa - Mansehra and Peshawar - were brought into the disaster management net as pilot project and provided fire tenders, equipment and other facilities.

Shah said talks were in progress between the authority and Education Department to include the disaster management in the curricula from primary to higher secondary level. He said due to absence of the DDMA, the death toll in the October 8, 2005 earthquake had risen to a great level.