By: Erasto Agwanda
Kisumu County is implementing disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation measures using different laws,plans ,strategies and coordination mechanisms,says the County’s CECM for Public Service,County Administration and Participatory Development Salmon Orimba.
Speaking during Kisumu County Making Cities Resilient (MRC 2030) Workshop titled “The Urban Risk-Informed Development Planning and Making Cities Resilient:Building Capacity for DRR in Kisumu County”,Orimba added that the Urban Resilience scorecard tool is going to enable the County carry out self-assessment on the adequacy of the system it’s operating.
He further said that the County and the City are facing a number of hazards which includes flooding,fire outbreak,spread of diseases ,hailstorms ,traffic related accidents,heatwave ,environmental decoration ,increased climate change ,Environmental deterioration ,increased informal settlement ,increased urbanization as well as population which expose many people to hazards.
“Better approaches to disaster risk management is therefore necessary in order to improve in the Resilience of the Communities which are at risk of disaster”he further said .
He added that the gaps identified should lead to designing of better approaches ,planning and coordination of Disaster Risk Management in the County which will result in strengthening the Resilience of the Communities against risk.
The capacity building workshop organized by the County Government of Kisumu ,GIZ-Resiliance Initiative in Africa (RIA) and United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) while promoting the importance of effective climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction aims to increase political commitment and social demand for Disaster Resilient Development,Learn about urban resilience ,strengthen the linkage between the national-local disaster risk reduction planning and implementation as well serve as a platform to share good practices and exchange in-depth learning among participants.
In collaboration with local governments, non-governmental organizations and international institutions the project implements integrated strategies for Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) and Climate Change Adaptation (CCA) and also aims to strengthen the resilience of African Cities against disaster risks and the impacts of climate change through strengthening capacities of regional ,national ,local state and non-state actors for Risk Informed Urban Development in Africa.
