Key to successful Disaster Risk Mitigation is Public Participation: CEO ERA
Dr, Syed Abid Rasheed Shah, Chief Executive Officer, JKERA/JTFRP has said that the key to successful disaster risk mitigation is public participation. He was speaking at a Webinar organised by Jhelum Tawi Flood Recovery Project on the theme of “Promoting Safe Habitat & Structural Safety”.
The Webinar was organised by JTFRP as part of the sensitization campaign on one of its sub-project namely “ Upgrading Design Guidelines ,building codes/ material specifications with respect to multiple Disasters in J&K” under the component of ” Strengthening the Disaster Management Capacity “.
CEO,ERA/JTFRP said that regulatory mechanism alone is not sufficient for developing a much needed approach towards safe homes for people to prevent the loss of lives in case of natural calamities like earthquakes, landslides , avalanches etc to which J&K is very susceptible, but the sustained sensitization of the people on the issue is required to achieve this desired objective. He added that the adoption of the ideal mix of the traditional construction methods as well as the latest scientific construction approach will play a crucial role in this. “We must also take a cue from the scientific sense and traditional wisdom as visible from many of age old historical buildings which have survived many natural calamities without sustaining much of damage “Dr. Abid said.
Dr Abid dwelt at length about the various sub-projects being executed under the component of Strengthening of Disaster Management Capacity of JTFRP which is first of its kind in J&K and its significance for building the resilience to various natural disasters.
Speaking on the occasion Prof. CVR Murthy from I.I.T Madras briefed the participants about the relationship between the Multi-hazards and building permissions and how to correlate the various prevalent multi-hazards in a region while planning the structural designs.
Alpa Sheth, Managing .Director M/S VMS Consultants limited said that there is need to have a separate regulatory system manned by the qualified professionals for granting the building permission who will focus on some of the very basic structural safety norms while granting permissions for construction. She said that the 3rd party reviews and sensitization of people about the issue is also very essential.” People have right to hazard resistant homes and all the stakeholders, planners, architects, bureaucrats, structural engineers have an important role in achieving this objective” Sheth said
Kamal Kishore, Member NDMA spoke on “Policy perspectives on Safe Habitat and Structural Safety”and Dr, Umamaheshwaran Rajasekar, Chair Urban Resilience presented an insight into “ Role of Planning and Design” while as Manu Prakash, CEO, M/S Taru gave an detailed background of the theme.
Hemang Karelia, Task Team Leader, World Bank expressed the hope that the Webinar on the theme of structural safety is a step in right direction so sensitize practioners and people on the importance of safety parameters of building in multihazard prone region like J&K.
The Webinar was attended by more than 150 participants from the across the country which included urban planners, architects, structural engineers, policy makers, researchers and various experts in the field of disaster mitigation and many officers of JTFRP .
Q&A session was also conducted at the conclusion of the webinar during which participants asked various questions to the experts to gain more clarity on the topic.
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