VIJAYAWADA: With a view to create awareness among the denizens on the measures to be taken during disasters and natural calamities, the Vijayawada Municipal Corporation (VMC) is soon launching a website - www.vmcdisastermanagement.org - with the help of Government of India (GoI) and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
Mayor Koneru Sridhar will launch the portal next week and link it to the civic body’s existing website www.ourvmc.org
The website provides data regarding vulnerable areas in the city including flood and landslide-prone localities, reports on the disaster management, climate change impact, mitigation and action plans by the VMC. The VMC officials said that they are also planning to use short message service (SMS) to alert the civic body staff and others during calamities like floods.
According to the UNDP report, it is found that 35 wards out of 59 in the city are vulnerable due to spatial location and other reasons. There are three industrial estates in Vijayawada - Kondpalli, Kanur and Autonagar. The emissions from these estates may cause climate variability, which need to be looked into. The UNDP report also stressed the importance of strengthening early warning system.
The GOI and UNDP have taken up urban risk reduction project, in association with the Central and state governments, as part of which early warning system has been identified to be one of the key interventions for disaster preparedness and mitigation in the city.