National Disaster Management Authority organized the 2nd Pak-China Symposium on Early Warning for Hydrological and Geological Disasters at NDMA Headquarters, Islamabad. The two-day symposium, being held from 18-19 May 2026, brought together policymakers, scientists, disaster management practitioners, diplomats, development partners, academia, UN agencies, and international experts to promote regional cooperation on climate resilience and multi-hazard early warning systems. During the inaugural session, NDMA also launched the “Global Best Practices for Disaster Mitigation and Management” highlighting international standards, lessons learned, and scalable models to strengthen Pakistan’s Disaster Management.
Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Prof. Ahsan Iqbal attended the inaugural session as Chief Guest. Addressing the symposium, the Federal Minister stated that climate change has emerged as one of the defining challenges of the 21st century, requiring integrated preparedness, scientific innovation and strong institutional coordination to protect vulnerable populations and critical infrastructure from increasing hydrological and geological hazards. He further stressed strengthening provincial capacities and operational coordination with NDMA for timely preparedness, early warning dissemination, emergency response and recovery operations during disasters.
He highlighted that Pakistan faces growing risks from glacier lake outburst floods (GLOFs), flash floods, landslides, earthquakes, heatwaves, and extreme weather events, stressing the need to mainstream disaster resilience into national development planning through science-based policymaking, technological modernization, and regional cooperation.
In his keynote remarks, Chairman NDMA Lt Gen Inam Haider Malik highlighted NDMA’s strategic vision of shifting from reactive disaster response toward a proactive, anticipatory actions and preparedness-driven disaster management system. He underscored the shared geography of Hindu-Kush, Karakorum and Himalaya (HKH) region which has placed Pakistan & China in the most hazard-prone areas. He emphasized that the two countries shared tectonic fault systems, glacier-fed rivers and strategic joint infrastructure along Karakoram region making the operational cooperation a strategic necessity. He stated that strengthening multi-hazard early warning systems, improving risk communication, and promoting community-centered preparedness remain key national priorities.
Representatives from the Chinese Embassy reaffirmed their commitment to deepening China-Pakistan cooperation in disaster management, scientific research, technological innovation, and sustainable development. Leading experts from Chinese and Pakistani academic and scientific institutions presented research findings and operational experiences related to glacier dynamics, cryosphere monitoring, flood forecasting, landslide hazards, seismic risks, geospatial analytics, artificial intelligence, and digital disaster resilience. Among the prominent speakers were Zhao Ruiling, Representative of Chinese Embassy, Prof Kang Shichang, Director General Institute of Mountain Hazards & Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Prof Zafar Nawaz Jaspal, Vice Chancellor Quaid-e-Azam University, Prof Cui Peng, Academician Chinese Academy of Sciences and Prof M. Aslam Baig, Secretary General Pakistan Academy of Sciences.
The symposium featured technical sessions on multi-hazard early warning systems, glacier lake outburst floods (GLOFs), cryosphere monitoring and climate adaptation, earthquake and landslide risk assessment, digital disaster resilience and AI applications, geospatial technologies, predictive analytics, and community-centered preparedness and anticipatory action. A large number of participants, including diplomats, academia, development partners, researchers, practitioners, students and representatives from UN organizations attended the event, reflecting strong national and international commitment toward collaborative climate resilience and disaster risk reduction initiatives.
