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Urban Disasters and Reconstruction
Making Urban Safety Sustainable
Barcelona 14 September 2004: During today’s
World Urban Forum Networking Event entitled ´Making Urban Safety
Sustainable´, the chair, the honorable Indian Minister of State
for Urban Employment and Poverty Alleviation, Mme. Kumari Selja stated:
“Building peace in cities is as difficult if not more, than building
peace across nations.” Echoing the concern of former President
of Finland, Marti Ahtisaari, in his opening address to the Urban Disasters
and Reconstruction events, the Minister also reminded delegates that
the risk of disasters spreading their effects from city to city, and
even across national boundaries provided just cause for transnational
cooperation for risk reduction planning. Among the delegates, Juana
Balbina Chimilio Blanca described the inability of government to respond
immediately following Hurricane Mitch, and the consequent need for her
small community near Colon, Honduras to act in their own interest by
doing something that had not been done before in their community: “…we
worked with the women, and we worked with the youth to develop our own
means of minimizing risk in the future.”
Throughout the session, delegates spoke of their own experiences and
their concern that unless the poor were made a part of reducing their
vulnerability, unless governments at all levels stood behind their commitments
to minimize risk, and until the international aid community engages
with their development counterparts to ensure sustainability, that disasters
will continue to impact on the most vulnerable citizens of the worlds
cities. Summing up, Moderator Mihir Bhatt, of the Disaster Mitigation
Institute of India, reminded the meeting that “The safer the poor
are, the safer the cities are.”
For further information, please contact: Sharad
Shankardass, Spokesperson & Head, Press & Media Relations Unit
or Ms. Zahra A. Hassan, Tel: (254 020) 623153, 623151, Fax: (254 020)
624060, E-mail: habitat.press@unhabitat.org, Website: www.unhabitat.org
Or
Mr. Daniel Lewis, Chief Post Conflict and Safety Section, Tel:
(254 20) 623826
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