UNICEF team visits Bhadrak in Odisha to review Tsunami preparedness

Bhubaneswar: International team led by UNICEF visited Bhadrak district of Odisha which included participants from Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, as well as representatives from the UN and Reliance Foundation on Monday, to conduct a review on how the Bhadrak district is geared up as far as Tsunami preparedness is concerned.

Collector and District Magistrate, Bhadrakh, Dilip Routrai said, “Today, an international team led by UNICEF had come to Bhadrak district of Odisha. In the district we are implementing Tsunami preparedness in one block, that’s Basudevpur block, which is a coastal block of Bhadrak district. In four villages we have started the four villages which are most prone to Tsunami.”

He further said that they also saw that if there is a Tsunami warning then how they will evacuate and run for safety.
“The team which came under the leadership of UNICEF, comprised representatives from Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka and there were other representatives from Kerala and Reliance Foundation. All of them had come to see how the Bhadrak district is geared up as far as Tsunami preparedness is concerned. They were extremely happy interacting with the people,” he further said.

He further said that on October 29 which is National Disaster Preparedness Day which is also State Disaster Reduction Day, Odisha Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi felicitated Bhadrak district and the prize was recieived by Additional District Magistrate.

“This is after few days cyclone Dana had struck the district. The most important part is that the people and the district administration have a very strong interface and that is what they learnt from us and the underlining point is that there has to be multilateral cooperation between government and non-government sector. Coordination will help to face disaster like Tsunami,”he added.

Chief of UNICEF Odisha field office, William Hanlon said that they had been to Bhadrak, Balasore and the coastal areas.
William Hanlon said, “We came with a group that was led by the United Nations Resident Coordinator’s Office together with Reliance foundation to look at disaster risk reduction in coastal areas of this district. The purpose is to bring our international participants who come from Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, as well as representatives from the UN and Reliance Foundation, to look at efforts that can be brought to bear to help mitigate the problems related to disasters.” (ANI)