THIS refers to dismal state of the Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA)in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP). I experienced this when I recently visited its of fice in Peshawar. Being a student of a master`s degree programme at the University of Engineering and Technology, Peshawar, I am working on disaster risk mitigation related to small bridges in the provincial capital.

In any standard disaster mitigation procedure,itisimperative to plan before any unfortunate event occurs. This is done by collecting information on the previous catastrophic events, such as earthquakes, floods, etc. The assessment of the capacity of our infrastructure against the same is also done, apart f rom highlighting vulnerability of the weaker sections that faced damage against the hazards.

I was expecting this vital information when I visited the PDMA af ter getting access to it through recommendation from my supervisor. I was hoping to find earthquake acceleration time history data for the 2005 and 2015 earthquakes.

I had planned to brief the relevant of ficer about my project which is focussed on the assessment of small bridge infrastructure against the loads they faced in the two earthquakes, and to provide estimates of the damage they might sustain in any future unfortunate event.

Upon my visit, I was greeted by an of ficer of the PMS cadre who unfortunately was not acquainted with the concept at all and instead expressed surprise at the idea of assessment and prediction of future response of such structures against an earthquake.

I was equally bewildered to find out that the working of the authority was limited to the disbursement of financial compensation to whoever was af fected by any such event.Upon my enquiry about what the PDMA had been doing in terms of planning for such catastrophes, the of ficer in question was unable to provide any details.

It was also shocking to know that the entire staf f of PDMA had only one civil engineer as part of the administration whom I was unable to meet as he was busy with his of ficial duties.

As a student in this field, it was extremely discouraging to find the current state of the most important platform for disaster prevention and planning, which was created in 2008 af ter intense international pressure and generous foreign funding following the catastrophic 2005 earthquake.

The people need to putpressure on the relevant government quarters through social media to end this apathy of the institutions, which, in fact, should be utilised to reduce the effects of catastrophes,suchasthe recentnoodsacrossthe country, which, unfortunately, have become a norm, thanks to climate change.

Omair Shafiq Peshawar