Bhutan

Building safer communities

Bhutan joined the global community and marked the International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction on 14th October 2009. A handbook on emergency safety was released in order to raise public awareness on disaster risk reduction.

The 14th of October, the International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction, was marked. For Bhutan, the commemoration of the day, was highly important, as the country have faced a series of natural disasters during this year. Speaking at the event, the Minister of Works and Human Settlements, Mr. Lyonpo Yeshey Zimba said that disasters are striking Bhutan more frequently and the country is vulnerable to natural disasters.
- We have to take the recent earthquake as a wake up call and think how we can improve the emergency safety. We need to be prepared and raise awareness at all levels of the society, said Lyonpo Yeshey Zimba.

He further pointed out that Bhutan is suffering from the global warming:

Disasters are caused by the way we live our lives. The world needs a new development paradigm in order to reduce the damages on the nature. Bhutan is one of the lead countries in the environment field with our development philosophy of GNH leading to sustainable development, he said.

The Minister thanked the UN-system, the World Bank and other donors for the help and support after the earthquake on September 21. The earthquake claimed the lives of 12 people and 47 people were injured. 4,614 homes are reported to have been affected by the natural disaster.

The UN Resident Coordinator, Claire Van der Vaeren said:
- Bhutan has seen more than its fair share of natural calamities. This day gives us an opportunity to pay tribute to those affected by natural disasters, and to reflect on the lesson we have learned and how to go forward. Read the speech here.

Handbook on emergency safety
To raise public awareness on disaster risk reduction, the Department of Disaster Management released a handbook on Emergency safety and first aid. The handbook is to be published in all schools, Gewogs, Dzongskhags, various agencies and the general public.

• To ensure meaningful participation from community members and empower them to take action during times of emergencies, we need to inform the people on the “dos” and “donts” during disaster events, said Karma Doma from the Department of Disaster Management.

Role-play

Three schools from Thimphu presented a role-play where they highlighted how disaster events should be handled. The audience witnessed a well-prepared, funny and interesting role-play where both earthquake and floods were experienced.

The Department of Disaster Management (MoCHa) organized the event, in collaboration with UNDP, WFP, UNICEF and Earthquake Risk Reduction and Recovery Project.