KUALA LUMPUR – Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) in collaboration with National Disaster Management Agency (NADMA) and Malaysia Civil Defence Force (APM), had launched the Disaster Relief Mission and Rapid Assessment 2021 for Water-Related Disaster Risk on 7th January 2020.
This initiative was propelled by the Disaster Preparedness and Prevention Center (DPPC) of Malaysia-Japan International Institute of Technology (MJIIT) located in UTM Kuala Lumpur campus.
The DPPC Director, Dr. Khamarrul Azahari Razak in an interview session with the UTM Office of Corporate Affairs said that the Disaster Relief and Assessment 2021 programme aimed at observing the impacts of the recent monsoon that has caused many riverine floods, landslides, and high-tide phenomenon in Pahang and Johor.
“We also aimed at exploring good practices, benchmarking local commitments, understanding needs and demands for emerging risks, climate-induced disaster, cascading hazards, and community-led disaster risk reduction in the most vulnerable states to extreme weather, environmental degradation, rapid urbanization, and anthropogenic activity.
The DDPC Disaster Mission 2021 has also reflected towards the progress of achieving global target on multi-hazard early warning system and the disaster risk information and assessments for people by 2030,” said Dr. Khamarrul.
Dr. Khamarrul said that the programme has highlighted the co-design and co-develop practices of local Disaster Relief and Rapid (DRR) resilience strategies towards rejuvenating DRR investments and promoting quintuple helix innovation model on public-private-academia-civil society characterized by environmental disaster and systemic risk.
“A multi-sectoral engagement, benchmarking good practices, field reconnaissance, and site visit are the focus of our activities with the great support from various strategic partners at federal, state, and local levels,” said Dr. Khamarrul.
The recent water-related disasters have caused significant impacts on the livelihood and socio-economic of Malaysians despite the hard efforts to reduce the transmission of COVID-19 pandemic and support local economic recovery.
The Malaysian government has committed to the global targets set by Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030 particularly on reducing current risk, preventing future risk and strengthening societal resilience. Its target also included the developments and implementation of local disaster risk reduction and resilience strategies (Global Target E2) to be achieved in 2020.
Besides NADMA and APM, UTM has also received collaborations and supports from Fire and Rescue Departments of Malaysia (JBPM), National Disaster Management Association (NADIM), Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), I-Divers Tours Sdn. Bhd. and The Malaysian Deaf Sports Association (MSDeaf).
The Disaster Relief Mission convoy was completed by Pro Vice-Chancellor (UTM Kuala Lumpur), Prof. Dr. Shamsul Sahibudin at the foyer of the MJIIT main entrance.
