Stressing strengthening capacities for disaster preparedness, speakers at a meeting called for taking effective steps for tackling disaster in the urban areas.
Dhaka city is vulnerable to disasters such as earthquake, fire, building collapse, water-logging and wastage. Institutional capacities need to be strengthened for disaster preparedness, they said.
Besides, they called for raising awareness, proper Government-NGO coordination, involvement of the private sector and strengthening ward disaster management committee (WDMC) for disaster risk reduction.
They remarked while addressing an inception meeting on ‘Strengthening Urban Resilience Project (SURP)-II’ in the capital on Tuesday.
Community Participation and Development (CPD) organized the meeting in association with zone-5 of DNCC, European Union Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection (ECHO) and Save the Children.
The event was told that in a bid to strengthen institutional capacities and government strategies for increasing disaster preparedness, the CPD, supported by ECHO and Save the Children, will implement the project in four wards--29, 30, 32, 34--under DNCC.
Md. Masud Hossain, zonal executive officer of Zone-5, DNCC, chaired the zone level inception meeting at Karwan Bazar.
Meherunnessa Fatema Tani, deputy manager of Save the Children, Zahid Ferdous, secretary of DNCC’s ward no. 32, Khan Md. Muzahid Ibne Habib, Md. Fazlul Hoque, project coordinator of CPD, among others, spoke at the event. Other officials of DNCC and representatives from different I/NGOs also attended the programme.