Disaster preparation programme handed over to Selangor government

THE Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) programme, also known as Sedar, has been handed over to the Selangor government.

Prior to the handover, Sedar was a collaborative effort by the Selangor Disaster Management Unit (SDMU) and the Disaster Preparedness and Prevention Centre (DPPC) at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, the Malaysia Civil Defence Force (APM), and the International Research Institute of Disaster Science (IRIDeS) under Tohoku University, Japan.

The four-year programme was launched in Malaysia in June 2018 and was funded by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (Jica).

Sedar aims to enhance the disaster risk reduction capacity of local governments and community leaders in Selangor.

At the handover ceremony, Selangor youth, sports and entrepreneurship development committee chairman Mohd Najwan Halimi said the collaborative programme brought a lot of benefits to the state.

“This programme exposed local community leaders to proper disaster management and DRR strategies which are essential for more aggressive and advanced disaster preparations,” he said.

Najwan also acknowledged the need for people to understand that disaster management was not solely the government’s responsibility.

“The state will actively engage with all stakeholders including schoolchildren and youths to equip them with the necessary disaster management knowledge,” he said.

The handover ceremony in Subang was part of a two-day symposium called “Localising DRR Actions: Public, Private, Academic & Community Collabo-ration in Reducing Disaster Risk”.

The symposium was organised by SDMU, co-hosted by APM, and supported by the National Disaster Management Agency, IRIDeS, and DPPC.

Several disaster management policies were recommended to the state government during the symposium.

On a separate matter, Najwan said the state would soon announce details of incentives for Selangor athletes who won medals during the Asian Games.

Additionally, he also urged Selangor entrepreneurs facing problems in settling their interest payments, to appeal to the state government so that an extension could be granted after their cases were studied.