| Bhutan's
glaciers and glacial lakes |
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Bhutan Glaciers - Glacial Lakes |
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Bhutan Glaciers - Glacial Lakes |
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Glacial
Lake Outburst Floods (GLOF) |
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Regional
Workshop on GLOF Risk Reduction in the Himalayas |
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| People
in the Himalayan belt that encompasses parts of India, Pakistan, Nepal
and Bhutan face similar kinds of disasters, the socio-economic impact is
more or less similar in nature and hence similar risk mitigation strategies
need to be adopted to counter the impact of the same. According to a Regional Glacial Lake Outburst Floods (GLOF)Risk Mitigation Project covering
India, Pakistan, Nepal and Bhutan, hazards in the region are bound into
a delicate relationship of cause and effect and together combine to increase
risk in the region. |
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As part of an exercise to bring together all stakeholders
to share and learn from the field and discuss research work, a two day
regional workshop on GLOF Risk reduction was held on January 20-12 2009
in Paro, Bhutan.
This
workshop will be attended by Senior government functionaries and officials,
UN officials, Journalists, NGO functionaries and Research Scientists from
the four project countries; India, Pakistan, Nepal and Bhutan, and from
UK, Switzerland and Thailand. The workshop aims at providing a platform
for discussion on the subject and policy inputs to the countries in the
region as to how GLOF risk reduction can be factored in to development
projects and community level contingency planning.
The
Regional project, supported by the European Commission Humanitarian Aid
Department through its Disaster Preparedness Programme (DIPECHO) and UNDP's
Bureau for Crisis Prevention and Recovery has undertaken a Preparatory
Assessment Study on the impact of GLOFs in the four project areas, which
involved extensive desk review of available literature, community consultations
through focus group discussions, interviews with the help of questionnaires
followed by community consultation workshops to triangulate the findings
of the study. Other activities included trainings on first aid and
search and rescue to community volunteers in the affected regions.
The
project has also been instrumental in promoting knowledge and experience
sharing through various networks like the DRM-Asia Community of Practice
(DRM-Asia), Energy & Environment network (EE-Net), Solution Exchange
DRM India and Bhutan, Disaster Preparedness Network Nepal (DP-Net) and
Pamir Times, in Pakistan.
The
regional project has also generated global discussions on the importance
of non-structural risk reduction measures such as appropriate early warning
systems, awareness measures, coordinated preparedness and land use planning
and community-based risk mitigation and preparedness approaches in terms
of GLOF risk reduction. Most past risk reduction efforts around GLOFs have
focused on hydrological and geo-technical/engineering solutions. Construction
of channels for gradual and planned water release from glacial lakes and
compiling inventories of glaciers and glacial lakes using GIS and remote
sensing (RS) has been the most common response. The strategies identified
under this project seek to compliment the current approaches to ensure
a holistic GLOF mitigation strategy.
The
Regional GLOF Risk Reduction Project is expected to enhance the understanding
of social and economic risks associated with GLOFs; explore community based
approaches for minimizing the impact of GLOF events; establish a regional
network in order to promote holistic approaches to GLOF risk reduction
and support national agencies and other stakeholders in developing projects
aimed at GLOF risk reduction. The project was concluded in February 2009.
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| Source,
UNDP Bhutan 2008 |
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