SAARC Environment and Disaster Management Centre

In March 2016, an agreement was reached to create a SAARC environment and Disaster Management centre between India and Pakistan as a split entity. While India will host the Disaster Management Centre, Pakistan will house the offices for the Environment and Energy Centre.

Comment for Analysis

The way this new body was split between the two countries shows how the members of SAARC have competed with each other in almost every matter of importance. The region faces numerous challenges related to climate change, environment degradation and natural disasters and none of them is fully capable to deal with them. There was an idea of merging Disaster Management, Forest Management, Coastal Area Management Centre and Environment centres into a dedicated SAARC Environment and Disaster Management Centre. But they have failed to set up it as a single centre because both India and Pakistan had laid claims to house the new body; and thus an agreement was reached to set up it as a split body. Previously, the countries had planned to set up a SAARC Disaster Management Rapid Action Force (SDMRAF) in the aftermath of Nepal earthquake, but then failed to set up that also.