Press Release
The ECO International Conference on Disaster Risk Management was organized on 8-10 October, 2007 in Islamabad, Pakistan as being hosted by National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA). The conference was meant to promote a culture of disaster prevention and safety among decision-making public bodies and communities and devise strategies for better regional cooperation amongst through sharing experiences and good practices of the ECO member countries in disaster risk management which experience many common natural hazards.
The Conference was actively participated by representatives of almost all ECO member states and representatives of some relevant international organizations such UNDP, ISDR and UNICEF.
The Conference was inaugurated by H.E. Shaukat Aziz Prime Minister of Islamic Republic of Pakistan during which he briefed the meeting of the activities done to mitigate the pains of affected people during the two years back fatal earthquake of 8 October 2005 in Pakistan. He also highlighted some of main achievements and lessons learnt from this disaster.
During the inaugural session, Participants observed one minute silence in commemoration of those killed by tragic earthquake of 8 October 2005 in Pakistan.
During the three days conference the following four broader themes were considered during six thematic sessions:
(i) Disaster Management Systems in the ECO Member Countries,
(ii) Draught and Flood Mitigation and Preparedness
(iii) School Earthquake Safety; and
(iv) Post-Disaster Reconstruction experiences were discussed.
The participants shared their experiences and views on the most common disasters in the region which are Draught, Flood and Earthquake. While emphasizing one necessity to a paradigm shift from response oriented apprach to a prevention and mitigation approach they also expressed the need for a comprehensive, ointegrated and well coordinated strategy to deal with these phenomena and stressed that considering one dimension of disaster should not result in forgetting another aspect.
Considering that the ECO Region is a disaster prone area and since a majority of these hazards have a regional dimensions affecting more than one country at the same time, Participants retreated the importance of having regional cooperation on these subjects.
As the early warning system is considered the participating delegates particularly Pakistan and Iran informed the meeting of applying very useful and practical technologies for prediction of floods and earthquakes. The member states which have sufficient capacity in the field expressed readiness to provide technical assistance and share their experiences with other member states.
While considering the importance of Capacity building, the necessity for providing training for human resources of member states was emphasized. It was also stressed that the available capabilities of ECO member states has to be identified and there should be programmes for exchanging these capabilities among the member countries. For this end ECO has to organize training courses, workshops, Seminar, etc. on draught, flood, earthquake and slides.
Iranian Delegation proposed to organize the next Conference/Expert Group Meeting in Tehran during the next year.
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