By Qadeer Tanoli

There is no coordination among the stakeholders who are supposed to handle any natural calamity in the city. In case of a disaster of the sort that recently hit Japan, where a massive earthquake triggered off a tsunami killing thousands, Karachi would be found dangerously unprepared and vulnerable.

The preparedness of the city authorities can be gauged from a number of sobering facts that only two rescue tenders are available in a metropolis of approximately 18 million citizens. There is no early warning system in the country for any natural disaster, and Pakistan is not part of the early warning system which was set up for the South Asian Association of Regional Countries (SAARC) in New Delhi. There is no fire legislation in the country and every department concerned relies on its own procedure and strategy to tackle any untoward incident.

In the absence of necessary equipment and the required number of trained rescuers one can do nothing but to pray that no large-scale calamity hits the country.  When Kolachi investigated, it was found that the fire department of the City District Government Karachi (CDGK) is equipped with only three snorkels, around 25 fire tenders and one rescue tender.

There is only one available snorkel which can take part in fire extinguishing work in a building more than148 feet high - which typically means a 14 storey-building. There is no equipment for fire-fighting or rescue for any building which is 14-storey plus. 

According to a survey which was conducted some six years ago, there were 28,000 buildings in the city which were ground plus four and above and only around 250 such buildings had standard construction designs and material which could face the jolts of an earthquake.

According to some experts, the Karachi Building Control Authority (KBCA), now known as the Sindh Building Control Authority (SBCA), has some bylaws according to which no substandard building could be erected in the metropolis. However, serious attention is needed from the authorities concerned to implement all those bylaws in their true spirit.

According to these experts, it is generally perceived that incorporating safety measures in the construction of buildings would only raise construction costs. So safety measures are sacrificed to keep the cost of construction economical, they alleged.

The Karachi Port Trust (KPT) has 18 fire tenders and one rescue tender to fight against any potential disaster. Luckily, the KPT also has a special ship which could take part in a fire-fighting operation in the sea. This fire-fighting ship, which is itself a fire station, was inducted into the fleet some 40 years back.   

After the devastating earthquake in Kashmir and Hazara division in October 2005, which had claimed countless lives, the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) was formed to tackle any possible natural disaster. Under the umbrella of NDMA, the Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) and District Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) were also formed. In the same way, the Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) was created in the metropolis.

A long time ago, around 60 cadets were trained by foreign trainers at an academy which was situated at the Super Highway to serve as rescuers. However, the authorities concerned soon simply forgot about these personnel. It is learnt that nowadays each of them is being paid Rs 6,000 per month as a stipend. The authorities concerned hope, wishfully, that a person would put his life at stake in a rescue operation for this paltry sum. It is pertinent to mention here that minimum wage in Pakistan is Rs7, 000 per month. It is also worth remembering that these personnel have been trained to take part in rescue operations. They have been trained to use rescue tools which could play a vital role if someone is trapped in a calamity-hit building.

Moreover, there is no role planned for the private sector in the handling of any natural disaster. Whatever is being done is done by the public sector in this context although there are some private organisations which own the latest equipment to fight against a disaster.

By M. Waqar Bhatti

Nuclear authorities all over the world are taking precautionary measures to pre-empt and avert any nuclear disaster following the Fukushima tragedy in Japan, triggered off by a massive earthquake and resulting tsunami. However, the nuclear power regulatory authorities as well as disaster management officials in Pakistan are generally inaccessible to the people and media and are silent about what they were doing to protect them in case of a nuclear accident or sabotage.

Unlike the developed countries of the world, where nuclear regulatory authorities are taking measures to safeguard their people from any accidental radiation exposure, the Pakistani authorities are silent on questions such as whether the country’s nuclear installations can resist earthquakes of 8.9 magnitude or tsunamis with waves up to 30-meters high.

On the other hand, the civilian authorities responsible for disaster and risks management in the country, including the national and provincial disaster management authorities, fire brigade departments, civil defence officials and even the district, provincial and national governments, have not yet not yet given any thought to the possibility of a nuclear meltdown anywhere in the country. They have also not considered what to do in case of any nuclear accident despite the fact that Pakistan has at least two operational nuclear power plants as well as several other nuclear installations.

For citizens of Karachi, the safety of the four-decade-old Karachi Nuclear Power Plant (KANUPP) that is one of the two nuclear power plants currently operational in the country, is the main source of anxiety. The nuclear power plant was established and made operational in 1971 with the technical assistance from Canadian General Electric Company. Established on the city’s coast near Paradise Point, some 15 kilometers west of Karachi, the nuclear power plant meets merely three to four per cent of the city’s electricity needs as currently it is producing only 50 MW of electricity as against its design capacity of 137 MW of electricity.

The Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) that owns and operates KANUPP as well as the Pakistan Nuclear Regularity Authority (PNRA), that is the newly-established nuclear regulatory authority in the country, both claim that the safety records of KANUPP have been extremely satisfactory as testified by regular testing and reliability analysis.

According to them, average personnel radiation exposure has been well within the prescribed limits of the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP).

Similarly, the release of radioactive material through gaseous and liquid effluent has remained within four per cent of the maximum permissible limit while all its safety and operational mechanisms have been replaced with modern and improved technology to avert any nuclear accident.

But renowned nuclear physicist Dr Pervez Hoodbhoy, of the Quaid-e-Azam University, Islamabad, believes that as compared to risks and threats from the aging nuclear power plant, its usefulness is negligible and it should be closed down as early as possible keeping in view the poor disaster management capabilities of the Pakistani authorities.

“Since the Fukushima disaster in Japan, I’m calling for KANUPP’s closure as its usefulness is negligible as compared to the risks and threats attached to it. Nuclear reactors are normally established away from heavily populated areas but this power plant is now within city limits. Mass scale evacuation in Karachi is impossible for the authorities in case of ay disaster like Fukushima or Chernobyl,” he said.

Dr Hoodbhoy maintained that as the nuclear power plant was situated on the city’s coast, any radiation leak due to any sabotage or accident would affect millions of people as the breeze blows from the sea to land and it would carry the radioactivity deep inside the country.

“On the other hand, we don’t know what kind of precautionary measures have been adopted by the Pakistani nuclear authorities as they keep the facts hidden and don’t let people know anything about their nuclear installations. Worst of all, they don’t seem prepared for any nuclear disaster due to an accident or sabotage as we are not Japan or any European nation that remains prepared for such accidents and have the expertise to deal with them,” he added.

The nuclear physicist, who is known for his criticism of nuclear power and the nuclear programme, said KANUPP was merely a ‘toy’ in the hands of PAEC officials as it provides only three to four percent of the total energy needs of a megacity like Karachi. “It is aging, as its design life is over, and often remains inactive. So why not get rid of it instead of waiting or calling for an accident?” he asked.

On the other hand, when Karachi’s disaster management authorities, including the fire department and provincial disaster management authorities, were spoken to by Kolachi, it emerged that they were neither prepared for nor had any training or equipment to deal with a nuclear tragedy caused by any natural or man-made calamity.

Karachi fire department chief Ehteshamuddin, when approached to verify whether his department had any training to deal with any radiation leakage from KANUPP or any other radioactive exposure in the city,  said the fire brigade officials and firefighters had neither the training nor any equipment to deal with such a calamity.

“It is a sensitive issue and I believe that it is the responsibility of the nuclear authorities to make plans of what to do in case of any nuclear accident. As far as the fire brigade is concerned, we never have any such training or the equipment to deal with nuclear emergencies,” he maintained.

A senior fire fighter associated with the Karachi fire brigade department told Kolachi on condition of anonymity that a nuclear accident had never been discussed at any level by the city district government, and the fire brigade department had no training or contingency plan to act in case of a nuclear accident.

He said that he had attended an evacuation exercise organised by the National Disaster Management Authorities (NDMA) where he learnt that NGOs like the Pakistan Fishermen Folk Forum were more organised and equipped to deal with emergencies like tsunamis and cyclones and they were regularly carrying out exercises to keep the coastal communities prepared for an emergency evacuation.

The fire officer maintained that the situation was pretty bad as far as nuclear disaster management is concerned as a majority of the people, even educated ones in Karachi, were not aware of the hazards of exposure to harmful radiation. He added that he feared that owing to ignorance, lack of any guidance and training, there would be immense panic among millions of Karachiites in case of a disaster as nobody knows what to do in a Fukushima-like situation.

“We are not an organised nation like the Japanese and we don’t trust our authorities. We believe more in the electronic and print media and rumours spread through text messaging than the authorities. In this scenario, it is the responsibility of the media and academics to create awareness among the people about what should be done in case of disasters, natural calamities and accidents like those that have hit Fukushima,”he advised.