KABUL - Afghanistan National Disaster Management Authority (ANDMA) would be soon equipped with early warning alert system of natural disasters, an official said Saturday.
State Minister for Disaster Management (SMDM), Wais Ahmad Barmak, who was summoned to Wolesi Jirga or lower house of the parliament today to brief the lawmakers about recent natural disasters, said disasters affected families were helped with cash, food items and other essential items aid programs of government and non-government resources last year.
He said more than 100,000 families were displaced in the country due to insecurity last solar year. The affected families were provided with food and other essential items’ aid programs besides transferring them to safe areas, he said.
He said aid programs were still ongoing to affected families in Kunduz, Baghlan, Nangarhar, Kandahar and Farah provinces.
From one to five million Afghanis to each, and food and other essential items to all provinces except the capital Kabul have been made available for distribution to affected families whenever a disaster happens, Barmak said.
Food and other items are kept in local reservoirs of the provinces and can help up 28,000 damaged families.
He added ANDMA can better use 1.5 billion Afghanis allocated for emergency cases and 550 million Afghanis provided by charity organizations for its relief programs.
“The aid programs have depoliticized and would be not distributed based on demands of specific figures unless a disaster happens or people damaged, in the past, aid was distributed based on pressures and demands, some individuals distributed the aid even to undamaged families in order to get fame,” he said.
He said no any charity organizations in the future would be allowed to distribute aid without coordinating with ANDMA. All aid programs are currently managed by the government so the rights of affected families not lost, Barmak said.
On the other hand, he said work on activation of an early warning alert system for natural disasters was also underway. This system has the ability to anticipate a natural disaster from four to five days earlier, he said.
Barmak said the system would be activated with the support of the United States in the near future.
“With the activation of this system, the government can reduce risks by early response and addressing problems of the affected,” he said. (Pajhwok)