Kathmandu. KATHMANDU: The Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) has said that the incidents of river-based disasters will decrease this year with the removal of settlements from squatters.

KMC’s senior superintendent of police, Bishnu Prasad Joshi, said the incidents of river-based disasters would be minimized with the eviction of people living near the riverbed at metropolis 11, 14, 31 and 32.

“In the past years, flood-related incidents were more frequent in areas near the river. He expressed confidence that the incidents of river-based disasters would decrease this year except one or two sporadic places after the settlements are removed from the settlements.” According to him, precaution should be adopted in the area from Samakhusi to Gulf. Joshi said that the KMC has also identified the locations and formulated a strategic plan to minimize other water-related incidents that might occur during the rainy season.

According to him, KMC has already worked to incorporate preparedness for urban disaster risk reduction, management works to be carried out during disasters, post-disaster rehabilitation, capacity building at ward and community-level and coordination among internal and partners in the plan.

He also said that there was a need to build participatory mechanisms to make the city safe. The strategic plan takes full confidence in the need to reduce risk through the development of collective knowledge, skills and thinking. According to him, the implementation of the strategic plan will be started next year and programmes and budget will be proposed accordingly.

According to him, discussions have also been held on various preparedness mechanisms regarding disaster management and how to operate effective services through local and ward level relations with these mechanisms.

“There is a need to bring policies for disaster management at the ward level in order to make forecasts with risks related to infrastructure development and to develop capacity at the centre and ward levels of KMC,” he said. Joshi said that the risk of electrical fire is increasing in the city.

“The fire brigade was rushed out of the station within half a minute of receiving the fire. It is difficult to reach the destination due to heavy traffic on the road,” said Joshi.