Gilgit:Additional Secretary Ministry of Climate Change, Joudat Ayaz, on Saturday visited Shimshal, a teshil of Hunza district in the Gilgit-Balistan and distributed Hazard Watch Group Equipment (HWGE), under GLOF-II Project for effective resilience building.
HWGE acquired under the project “Scaling-Up of Glacial Lake Outburst Floods Risk Reduction in Northern Pakistan (GLOF-II)” was distributed to Community Based Disaster Risk Management Cell (CBDRM) established in Shimshal.
The said equipment has been procured for strengthening organizational preparedness and response capacities of communities in case of any disaster.
Additional Secretary, Joudat Ayaz, Ministry of Climate Change who is also the National Project Director, GLOF-II Project handed over the items to the community members.
He acknowledged and emphasized how GLOF-II Project was working on resilience building of communities against climate-induced disasters particularly glacial lake outburst floods.
Ayaz further informed that technological support provision in the form of various items from rescue and relief to capacity building was part of strengthening the Hazard Watch Groups to cope with the emerging issues of GLOFs in the region.
The distributed items include appliances such as generators, UPS batteries, inverters, binoculars, walkie-talkies, GPS, gas cylinders, portal generators, cyber shot cameras, range finders, small solar panels along with recuse and relief items such as sleeping bags, tents, rain sheets, rain coats, backpacks, sunglasses etc.
The Provincial Project Coordinator GLOF-II Project emphasized on the project’s focus on strengthening capacities of communities through such items in all 16-targeted valleys of GB notified under GLOF-II Project.
Disaster preparedness is an effective mechanism for the vulnerable communities to adapt and reducing the impact of disasters in the event of any unforeseen calamity. Such equipment not only helps to enhance the ability of communities to monitor the hazard and safeguard themselves but also help in building a strong patronage with the project beneficiaries.
The project with support from Ministry of Climate Change and Green Climate Fund aims to make such communities self-reliant to be able to avoid human and material losses from GLOF events.