Dhaka: Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) on Saturday launched town-watching programme with participation of the community people as part of its ongoing endeavour to involve dwellers in preparing their own disaster risk reduction (DRR) plan.

According to a release, the first ever town watching walk was held with participation of local community of Ward No 17 under the DNCC at Joar Sahara in the capital, reports BSS.

During the town watching walk, the community people, comprised ward disaster management committee members, urban volunteers, religious leaders, teachers, and nearby residents, were divided into groups and walked around their neighbourhood to identify risks such as hanging wires and hazardous establishments and resources such as open spaces and water sources.

They made a community hazards map with their findings, and discussed what they can do to reduce risks and utilise resources after the town watching, the release said.

The DNCC has taken the initiative under one of its project titled ‘Capacity Building for Community-Based DRR in Urban Areas of Bangladesh’. The project was initiated last year in line with DNCC’s proposal to develop local level disaster management plan and its implementation for building a disaster resilient city, it added.

Superintending Engineer of Environment, Climate Change and Disaster Management Circle of DNCC Dr Engr Tariq Bin Yousuf said DNCC will expand the town watching activities to the other wards in phase by phase realising the importance of preparing participatory based community DRR plan.

Town watching is a widely used tool for DRR education as well as ‘community capacity building for DRR in different countries, he said adding ‘Like other disaster prone countries such as Japan are trying, we would like to involve communities in disaster management so that they can cope with all sorts of disasters and raise their voice for getting support from the local government’

Earlier, Ward No -17 councilor Mohammad Jinnat Ali participated in a four-day DRR workshop in Makati city, Philippines last year organized by Japanese community DRR experts.

Through community based DRR, people are expected to obtain ability to take action in disaster preparedness and mitigation by knowing local disasters and community characteristics, to protect oneself from disasters, and to offer help to others voluntarily, the release said.