Srinagar: Centre for Disaster Management and Environmental Studies (CDMES) of Institute of Management, Public Administration and Rural Development (J&K IMPARD) Thursday organized a daylong event to mark the 3rd Anniversary of Kashmir Floods 2014 in Srinagar.
The event focused on the impacts of September 2014 unprecedented floods in the State in general and Kashmir valley in particular. The event was attended by officials from disaster management, irrigation and flood control, UEED, PHE, Fire and Emergency Services, members from NGO’s, students and scholars from Kashmir University and people from media fraternity.
Discussions were held on the pros and cons of the flood management scenario in the state and the need to strengthen it.
Highlighting the significance of commemorating the 3rd Flood Anniversary, coordinator of the workshop and in-charge CDMES of IMPA, Dr. G.M. Dar gave a detailed overview of the Disaster Vulnerability and the steps required to reduce it especially with regard to flooding.
“The focus of flood preparedness should start from an individual to government and societal level,” Dr. Dar said, adding that lot of good things have been undertaken after 2014 floods, including training of volunteers from every district of the state.
“We should go to the community and village level as they are the real stakeholders. For this we have implemented the scheme in which we will train 200 volunteers from Srinagar and 300 from rest of the districts in order to overcome from the future flood situation issues,” he said.
During the event presentations, documentaries, group discussions were also held and an account of the activities of proposed under the World Bank funded Jhelum, Tawi Flood Recovery Project was shared.
Farooq Ahmed, Meteologist at Met Office Srinagar gave a brief account of the initiatives of IMD post-2014 with reference to Flood Early Warning System.
A set of recommendations were proposed for consideration of those who are at the helm of affairs so that loss of life and property can be minimized in future by organizing community based Disaster Management Programs on war footing throughout the nook and corner of the state.
The event concluded with the pledge that “everyone needs to contribute to reduce flood risk in the state”.
