Disaster management plan to be unveiled soon

An international consultancy firm contracted to formulate the country’s National Disaster Management plan is scheduled to present its final draft on November 29, an official announced Saturday. Aurecon presented its first “inception report” to stakeholders mid last month and announced that it was making good headway. “This is the latest – the Aurecon group is coming back for the 3rd and last trip to present their final draft of the contingency plan. This should be onNovember 29 and we hope to have a validation workshop either on 3rd or 4th December,” said CSP Damas Gatare, the Director of the Disaster Management unit in the Ministry of Internal Security. After validation by stakeholders, late this month, Gatare said “the final outcome of the workshop will be on 7th December.” In mid-September, the firm which won the contract to work on the project first sent consultants to disaster prone regions countrywide, in what is referred to as a risk evaluation assessment trip. Apart from Akagera National Park in the east, one of the most vulnerable areas to fires, other areas visited by Aurecon experts include Musanze, Nyamasheke, Rusizi, Nyabihu and Rubavu which are considered “highly vulnerable” to floods and mudslides. After their first country trip, in October, Aurecon announced that the Rift Valley and volcano areas in the country are a natural phenomenon that increases the vulnerability of people, the environment and critical facilities. Other aspects contributing to people’s vulnerability include land use management or land use practices, they reported.The UNDP has injected USD 60,000 (approx. Rwf 34 million) into the project and a UN disaster management specialist is monitoring the work. Districts around the country have already trained, at least seven district-level disaster management officials, on how people can coordinate and work together on any type of disaster. The army has also been participating in several regional disaster relief exercises. Ends