India to host Asian Ministerial Conf on Disaster Management

New Delhi, Oct 23 (UNI) The Second Asian Ministerial Conference on Disaster Management being held here from November 7, would formulate a Plan of Action on risk reduction and mitigation of devastation.

Tsunami, floods, super-cyclones, earthquakes and other such natural disasters would be the focus of the two-day conference being held in India for the first time. The first such conference was held in Beijing, China, in 2005.

A Delhi Declaration would be adopted at the end of the Conference which would ask the countries to incorporate the disaster risk reduction and mitigation into the mainstream of the development process itself by adopting a construction process suitable to particular environment like those in the seismic zone, flood prone and low lying areas and coastal zone.

Besides emphasising on the use of modern technologies and information sharing between the countries of the region, the Conference would also deliberate on ways to increase involvement and training of the local communities in reducing impact of the disasters, Home Ministry sources told UNI.

Empowering the community by vesting greater reliance on them in dealing with natural disasters has been proved crucial for disaster risk reduction and mitigation the world over, they pointed out and said that a special focus would be given to this aspect during the Conference.

Moreover, providing livelihood security to people staying in disaster prone zones was important and it could be done through schemes like the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act.

About 55 countries of Asia have been invited for the Conference and of them 38, including Pakistan, Bangladesh and China, have confirmed their participation. At the end of the Conference an Asian Platform for Disaster Management would be formed just like the Global Platform at the level of the United Nations.

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