Friday, June 30, 2017

Local bodies to develop DRR policies

Kathmandu, June 29: Significantly reducing its role in the Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR), the government is preparing to provide rights to the local government to develop their own policies on DRR, said Shankar Hari Acharya, chief of National Emergency Operation Centre at the Ministry of Home Affairs (MoHA).
 “This will help formulate customized policies suitable for the local context,” he said while speaking at a talk programme on ‘Disaster risk reduction in new local government structure of Nepal: opportunities and challenges’.
He said the need and urgency of DRR mainstreaming was realized profoundly from the policy level following the devastating Gorkha Earthquake 2015.
“Now, this has been reflected in the new disaster management laws and policies,” said Purushottam Subedi, chief of Fire Control and Disaster Management Section at the Ministry of Federal Affairs and Local Development (MoFALD).
He expressed his confidence that the new act would guide Nepalese system to focus on preparedness and planning with well equipped for rapid response.
Suman Meher Shrestha of Town Development Fund highlighted that the reconstruction works should respect the traditional urban fabrics while the complexity of urban DRR should be realised by stakeholders to take any action.
Similarly, senior researcher and ISET Nepal executive Director Ajay Dixit made a reference to draft National Strategy on Urban Resilient Communities while pointed up the possible impact of climate change and climate induced hazards during urban development.
He shared that since Nepal was rapidly urbanizing, integrating DRR during urban development would be the most logical step to develop resilient urban communities.

The programme was organised by National Disaster Risk Reduction Center Nepal (NDRC) in collaboration with Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) Nepal.

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