SRINAGAR: Safina Beigh, Chairperson, District Development Council (DDC) Baramulla Thursday emphasized ‘Community Participation’ vis-à-vis dealing with natural disasters to minimize the loss of lives and property while addressing the 6th World Congress on Disaster Management (WCDM) 2023 at Dehradun.
The 6th World Congress on Disaster Management (WCDM) 2023 is being held at Dehradun from 28 November to 01 December 2023 jointly by the Government of Uttarakhand, Uttarakhand State Disaster Management Authority (USDMA), Disaster Management Initiatives and Convergence Society (DMICS), and Uttarakhand State Council for Science & Technology (UCOST).
Addressing participants, Safina Beigh said that disasters have ravaging effects like destroying life and property, displacing humanity, etc. specifically to ‘Mountain Ecosystems & Communities. ’Governments have been doing their part by allocating sufficient budgets, and training disaster-responsive forces to mitigate any calamity and yet it becomes very difficult to prevent losses.
She stressed that the need of an hour is that we should summon all our human, technical and material resources and chalk out a policy of climate management and Environmental Protection. “We should summon all our moral, environmental, technical and management resources to ensure that in this respect our future does not repent our past,” Safina Beigh added.
The Chairperson DDC Baramulla said: “Community Participation can play a vital role in curbing the impact of natural disasters which involves taking on board vulnerable people directly in planning and implementation of mitigation, preparedness response and recovery measures to deal with natural disasters.”
Through community-based disaster preparedness, we can utilize collaborative efforts to innovate and implement community-based disaster preparedness strategies, considering the vulnerability of mountainous regions to natural disasters. Crisis Management Plan and Crisis Management team should always be prepared to tackle such situations.
She said that the role of panchayati raj institutions in both post-risk disaster and post-disaster management is very important. “We must integrate disaster preparedness into its core system starting from ground level,” added Safina Beigh.
Safina Beigh said that today’s discourse has to be on the powerful trio of innovation, collaboration and communication. “We must understand the challenges and possibilities of the ecosystem of mountains and valleys and ensure that catastrophe of the past, in a similar environment, does not occur,” she added.
She said that our nation has all the required resources and technologies, moral and political, and the will to redeem ourselves, and set a standing example for today, tomorrow and for all times to come.
