Logistics Support for Disaster Management

Abstract

Pakistan is located in a volatile disaster prone region. Its diverse landscape is susceptible to wide-range of hazards from droughts to floods and earthquakes to cyclones. Recently, Pakistan has suffered almost every year from floods. Disaster management had remained limited to the provision of relief rather than long-term management of risk. 2005 earthquake was one of the worst disasters of Pakistan. It exposed inefficiency of the government machinery in tackling the situation. Establishment of a nodal agency and creating inter government/inter agency interface for coordinating national logistic support are key to calamity management. Disaster management response and recovery phase involves coordinated effort of various national, international agencies, officials and volunteers to help victims. Avoiding omissions and duplications requires an efficient logistics system in future by harnessing the efforts of different organizations. This paper is an effort to highlight the importance of an efficient logistics support system by seeing the contribution of a system employed in 2005 earthquake.