Caucasus and Central Asia to get 8 million from disaster preparedness program
news.am
August 26, 2012 | 10:47
The Caucasus region (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia) and Central Asia
(Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan) have
been allocated 8 million from the European Commission’s
Disaster-Preparedness Programme (DIPECHO) to help people at risk from
natural disasters.
`Building up the resilience of people who face the forces of nature is
a central plank of our humanitarian aid policy,’ said Kristalina
Georgieva, European Commissioner for International Cooperation,
Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Response, enpi-info.eu informs.
`Experience shows that simple measures for disaster-preparedness like
early warning alerts, elevated homes or providing boats can make all
the difference between saving and losing lives, homes and livelihoods.
We see disaster risk reduction as an investment, not as a cost: in
fact a euro spent on preparing for disasters saves 7 responding to
them.’
The DIPECHO programme seeks to reduce the impact of natural disasters
including floods, hurricanes, droughts, earthquakes, tidal
waves/tsunamis, volcanic eruptions, forest fires and storms by
strengthening the response capacity of local communities and national
authorities. The projects include reinforcing infrastructure,
training, awareness-raising, establishing or improving local early
warning systems and contingency planning.
From: Baghdasarian