ISLAMABAD: Civil society experts on Wednesday challenged the notion that natural disasters cause damage, claiming that human error and authorities` inefficiency is what turns natural hazards into disasters.

`People and the authorities are deceiving themselves that there cannot be any other earthquake now, and everybody is convinced that the houses being built are correct,` Sarwar Bari from the Pattan Development Organisation said.

He highlighted the findings of a survey on `Governance and Disaster` which was released by Pattan on Wednesday.

The launch was held to mark the 10th anniversary of the 2005 earthquake, but the study was related to both the earthquake and the 2010 floods in an effort to assess governance in disasters and the state of recovery.

The study observed that many of the mega projects, such as New Balakot City, Turkey Colony Thatta and Turkey Colony Muzaffargarh, had been launched with much fanfare but had not progressed.

`Not a single house has been allocated to the flood-affected people in Thatta, and only 25 per cent of houses in Muzaffargarh are occupied,` Bari said.

He said that New Balakot City only exists in writing.

Bari criticised the government for failing to execute its responsibilities.

`Instead of streamlining the state of affairs in the public sector departments, the government has raised issues against NGOs,` he said.

`It was mainly the NGOs that reachedout to the people instead of the government departments the minister should understand the scenario without NGOs if any disaster strikes in the future,` he said.

The study stated that 80pc of respondents discredited the role of government officials and political and religious partiesin rescue and reliefefforts, and gave positive feedback regarding NGOs, INGOs, the military, Rescue 1122 and foreign governments.

The study found that the government has not fulfilled the promises it made regarding the rehabilitation of quakeaffected people in 2005 or flood-affected people in 2010.

It stated that 10 years after the earthquake, `more than two-third people of earthquake-prone areas felt `unsafe` as they could not build houses according to Erra design and are worse off economically than before the earthquake` Similar trends were also found in floodaffected areas.

Strengthening Participatory Organisation (SPO) executive director Naseer Memon said that the authorities` failure to enforce building laws often led to great damage in the wake of a natural hazard.

`Why did one building fall in Islamabad? Because nobody checked its quality and standards,` he said.

`Similarly, natural waterways have been erased for commercial purposes leading to more damage but the authorities seldom take note of these things. By Kalbe All