Climate change Speakers call for preparing communities to deal with disasters

CHITRAL: Speakers at a workshop on Thursday said that creating a resilient and pre-prepared community to deal with natural calamities in an organised manner and without any difficulty and chaos was a great objective in life to serve humanity.

The Agha Khan Agency for Habitat (AKHA) had organized the day-long workshop titled ‘Gender-based adaptation to climate change planning and service delivery for the capacity building of line departments of the government and other key stakeholders.

Qudsia Mehtab of Agha Khan Foundation, Javed Ahmad, Manager Emergency Management Department of Aga Khan Agency for Habitat Pakistan, Chitral Region office were among the key trainers.

The workshop organised by ACAH’s BRAVE project, the speakers stressed the need for the importance gender equality.They said that Chitral was prone to multiple natural disasters and it was imperative to reduce the intensity of natural disasters and build resilience in the affected community about these calamities to minimise their negative effects.

It was emphasized that a reduction in gender equality at any stage of the resilience-building process would be highly detrimental as gender-based roles were defined and their absence is bound to be affected.

Participants discussed various gender issues, roles and responsibilities before, during and after natural disasters and proposed action plans. AKAHP Chitral Regional Programme Manager Wali Muhammad Khan said that creating a resilient and pre-prepared community to deal with natural calamities in an orderly manner was a challenging task.

He said that AKAH was involving all stakeholders in its efforts to minimize the effects of disasters on affected communities.

He said that with financial support from UK International Development and Concern Worldwide, his organization was working with civil society organizations and relevant government departments to create a common cause for climate change adaptation and mitigation of its effects in the region.