3-day workshop on disaster preparedness held in J-K

A three-day workshop on capacity building on disaster risk reduction for a safer society in Jammu and Kashmir was organised by the Department of Geography and Disaster Management at the University of Kashmir.

A three-day workshop on capacity building on disaster risk reduction for a safer society in Jammu and Kashmir was orgsed by the Department of Geography and Disaster Management at the University of Kashmir.

The purpose of the programme was to train students, teachers of different colleges and faculty members of the university.

It aimed at training participants to handle emergency cases during any disaster including fire incident, earthquake, and snow avalanches which are common these days in the upper reaches of Kashmir valley.

"Our goal is to a safer society by training the trainers. We are training the nodal officers who were working for disaster management as well as NSS officers. We are training them they will subsequently train other volunteers and students," said Shameem Ahmad Shah, HOD, Geography and Disaster Management at Kashmir University.

"We don't have any other option to build a disaster-resilient society. We can only do so by making people aware of the disasters and by training them," he added.

Since Kashmir is considered a seismic zone and in the past, the valley has been hit badly due to the number of earthquakes and floods, in collaboration with the SDRF, the department of geography orgsed the programme where civil defence experts gave different demonstrations about the rescue operations.

"Jammu Kashmir is a disaster-prone union territory, particularly the Kashmir valley. Our rescue orgsation cannot reach everywhere so it is very important that the community stays prepared. We are giving the students basic rescue training. When participants physically participate they learn easily," said Amir Ali, Director Disaster Management.

Due to the COVID-19 induced lockdown, the authorities only orgsed webinars earlier. But with the situation improving gradually they are now again holding such programmes to train people to deal with disaster-related incidents.

( With inputs from ANI )