Himachal to celebrate disaster reduction day on October 13

The HPSDMA will carry out the 10th edition of its an annual mass awareness campaign on disaster risk reduction ‘Samarth’

Like every year, the Himachal Pradesh State Disaster Management Authority (HPSDMA) will be celebrating International Day for Disaster Reduction on October 13.

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An HPSDMA spokesperson said the authority will carry out the 10th edition of its an annual mass awareness campaign on disaster risk reduction ‘Samarth’, which was started in the year 2011.

The state-wide campaign comprises a variety of events and activities held across districts in the month of October every year for two weeks.

The spokesperson informed that the focus for this year has been on developing content like news stories, photographs, quiz, videos and social media cards, which will highlight the links between good disaster risk governance and having national and local disaster risk reduction strategies in place in alignment with the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction.

Online and digital modes will be extensively used this year to create awareness, build capacities towards promoting disaster resilience in the state. Besides this, as part of this campaign, a tabletop mock exercise on chemical (industrial) disasters has been planned on October 15, along with National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), to assess and review the preparedness of all stakeholders. As a run-up to this exercise, online training for officers of the district disaster management authorities and nodal officers of all departments has been planned on October 12.