“We now have a prevention and emergency plan, which has allowed us to issue more local warning to communities. During the eruption, we sent local warning messages to people and asked them not to leave their houses. We also cleaned the volcanic ashes in the streets and reinforced the protection of the airport. The programme has given us new tools to enforce disaster reduction actions,” he said.

“Thanks to this initiative, we also have a prevention plan in place which goes beyond the current municipal mandate,” adds Cynthia Borjas, from the Municipality of Tegucigalpa, Honduras. “The plan has helped us increase collaboration between partners and establish new norms to rebuild in a more resilient way when disasters have happened. The city is particularly exposed to floods and mudslides. We have more than 960 barrios in our city and more than 32 percent of the population living there,  highly exposed to these phenomena."

The representative from San Juan de Lurigancho in Lima presented his plan to UNISDR and stressed the importance of getting the legal support of national authorities to also implement national directives for more urban planning, preparedness and community awareness measures.

Guayaquil’s plan features 43 action points that will help to reinforce coordination between different actors so less people will be affected when disasters happen in the Ecuador city.

Mayors will now continue to refine their plans and advance their implementation before presenting them at the next Global Platform that will be held in Geneva, Switzerland in May 2019.

Date:

21 Jun 2018

Sources:

United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction – Regional Office for the Americas (UNISDR AM)

UNISDR Office for Northeast Asia and Global Education and Training Institute for Disaster Risk Reduction at Incheon (UNISDR ONEA-GETI)

Themes:

Community-based DRR, Disaster Risk Management

Regions:

Americas