UNESCO Science to Assist in Pakistan’s Flood Disaster

• ©UNESCO Islamabad

Over the course of July and early August 2010, Pakistan experienced the worst monsoon-related floods in living memory. Heavy rainfall, flash floods and riverine floods have devastated large parts of Pakistan since the arrival of seasonal monsoon rains on 22 July. Natural disasters in Pakistan pose a major obstacle to its efforts to achieve sustainable development, in view of its limited capacity to predict, monitor, deal with, and mitigate disasters. Considering the scale of the human suffering and the magnitude of the flood related damages, the Director-General of UNESCO has decided to assist Pakistan in the specific related areas of UNESCO’s core science competencies.

With international attention focused on the escalating flood disaster in Pakistan, UNESCO is mobilizing scientific knowledge to enhance the flood disaster resilience of Pakistan in general with a major focus on helping with the current tragedy. In response to a request from the Permanent Delegation and the State Minister of Water Resources, UNESCO has prepared a mission to the country in partnership with its office in Islamabad. Areas to be addressed by the mission include the use of satellite images in flood mapping and evacuation plans, management of geohazards including landslides, state-of-the-art computer models for flood forecasting, and mobilizing UNESCO scientific networks working in the field of water management and water-related natural disaster mitigation. This mission will help facilitate and strengthen cooperation between the international science community and flood forecasting and groundwater management related entities in Pakistan. It will also bring in appropriate enabling tools to facilitate communication between the scientific and political actors in flood management. This effort is envisaged to be part of UN Initial Flood Emergency Response Plan in Pakistan in association with suitable donors.

The mission will help to connect relevant Pakistan authorities with responsible organizations within the UNESCO networks e.g. International Hydrological Program (IHP), International Geoscience Program (IGCP), UNOSAT (high resolution imagery products), UNESCO IHE (longer-term capacity building through water education), The International Centre for Water Hazard and Risk Management (ICHARM), International Flood Initiative (IFI), International Groundwater Resources Assessment Centre (IGRAC), International Consortium for Landslides (ICL) and Geohazards expertise for long-term capacity building in the country.

Related links

International Flood Initiative
http://typo38.unesco.org/en/about-ihp/associated-programmes/ifi.html

IFI home page: 
http://www.ifi-home.info/  

ICHARM home page: 
http://www.icharm.pwri.go.jp/  

UN-SPIDER SPACEAID: Available Space-Based information for: Flood in Pakistan

International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development
http://www.icimod.org/

UNESCO’s response to the flood
http://www.unesco.org.pk/floodresponse.html

Press release
Link

UNESCO’s natural disaster reduction website

• Source:Science
• 18-08-2010