Dang, Aug 5: Chief Minister of the Lumbini Province, Chet Narayan Acharya has directed to step up awareness creating campaign to lessen monsoon disaster-induced incidents and subsequent human and physical loss.
In his address to the 14th meeting of the Provincial Disaster Management Council held at the Office of the Chief Minister and Council of Ministers in Deukhuri on Wednesday, Chief Minister Acharya, also the council’s chair, instructed to make intensive preparation, raise public awareness, and ensure effective coordination among all agencies for disaster risk reduction.
It was informed during the meeting that preparations have been made for reducing monsoon-related risks, including fencing around irrigation canals and risky reservoirs, placing warning boards at public ponds and dams, running parent-focused awareness campaigns to prevent children from swimming in canals and ponds, and informing farmers about ways to protect themselves from lightning and heavy rainfall.
The meeting also took various decisions to make monsoon-related disaster management more effective, Secretary of the Ministry, Bharat Mani Pandey informed.
With the monsoon getting active, all security agencies, local governments, local administration, relevant agencies, Nepal Red Cross Society, and social organizations have been instructed to remain prepared for information collection and transmission, pre-preparations, response, search, and rescue.
Meanwhile, during last two months, 52 people have lost their lives due to monsoon-related disasters in Lumbini Province.
As many as 72 monsoon-related disaster incidents took place in the province from June 1 to August 3.
In the incidents, 52 people died, 10 were injured, and one went missing.
According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Law, Industry, and Transport, 44 of the deaths were due to drowning which accounts around 84 percent of the total casualties