By Our Correspondent
BHUBANESWAR: Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has expressed his happiness after two villages from Ganjam and Jagatsinghpur got recognition from UNESCO for disaster management.
“#Odisha has added another feather to its cap in #DisasterPreparedness with Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO recognising Venkatraipur in Ganjam District and Noliasahi in Jagatsinghpur District as Tsunami ready communities, becoming the first state to achieve this feat,” the Odisha CMO tweeted.
“The communities were recognised for ensuring strong end-to-end early warning and mitigation system with focus on community awareness and preparedness. Tsunami Ready programme aims at minimising loss of life and property by following best practices during tsunami,” it said.
The Odisha State Disaster Management Authority (OSDMA), Odisha has now implemented the Tsunami Ready programme in two villages viz., Venkatraipur in Ganjam District, Noliasahi in Jagatsingpur District. The National Board, after the verification of implementation of the indicators at those villages as per guidelines, decided to recognize them nationally and recommended to UNESCO-IOC for the recognition.
Based on the National Board recommendations, UNESCO-IOC has approved the recognition of two communities viz., Venkatraipur and Noliasahi as Tsunami Ready Communities. With this recognition, India is the first country to implement Tsunami Ready in the Indian Ocean Region and Odisha is the first state.
To confer the UNESCO-IOC’s Certificate of Recognition and Certificate of Appreciation to Venkatraipur and Noliasahi communities, OSDMA Officials, a virtual event is organized jointly by the Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS), ICG/IOTWMS Secretariat and Indian Ocean Tsunami Information Center (IOTIC) of UNESCO-IOC on 07 August 2020.
