Tijuana, 10 Jul 09

UN-HABITAT warned an international seminar in the Mexican city of Tijuana this month that it is essential for ordinary people to be better informed on how to deal with post-disaster situations.

The seminar, Transitional Shelter Response and Strategic Plans for post Earthquakes Situations, was organized by UN-HABITAT, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, the city of Tijuana and two Mexican institutions that deal with disasters.

“We have to involve the civil society and provide knowledge on the use of preventive disaster preventive plans. Civil society must be prepared”, said the chief of the UN-HABITAT Disaster Management Division, Mr. Dan Lewis, in an address to delegates 1 July.

During the event UN-HABITAT presented a standard methodology to be applied worldwide for effective pre-disaster shelter planning to improve post-disaster shelter provision. Pilot project were launched in Tijuana, Maputo (Mozambique) and Katmandu (Nepal), all of which were affected by recent disasters.

Another issue addressed by Mr. Lewis was the design of a long-term strategy of this methodology for a large scale implementation in high-risk countries such as, Peru, Nicaragua and Pakistan. The idea is to develop a Shelter Response Strategic Plan in collaboration with local authorities and institutions that can be implemented in more than 30 cities worldwide. For further details, click here.