A week-long Capacity Building Workshop on ‘Safer Schools’ organised by Department of Geography & Regional Development, University of Kashmir in collaboration with Jhelum Tawi Flood Recovery Project (JTFRP), Government of J &K and Institute for Risk and Disaster Reduction (IRDR), University College London (UCL), UK, concluded here on Friday .
A valedictory function in this regard was organised whichwas attended by Dr. Nisar A. Mir , Registrar, KU, Prof. G. M. Sangmi , Dean College DevelopmentCouncil KU and Prof. M. Sultan Bhat , Dean School of Earth & EnvironmentalSciences ,KU.
During the week long workshop it was highlighted by theexperts that based on surveys 80 percent of the schools in Kashmir divisionlack basic facilities like electricity, safe drinking water, and sanitaryfacilities thus making them vulnerable to different type of disasters.
Besides this, a significant number of schools in differentdistricts of Kashmir valley have been constructed on the banks of rivers, under chinar trees, near wild lifesanctuaries and enclosures, under railway bridges, steep slopes with ensuingdanger of landslides and HT lines thus making them highly vulnerable tomultiple disaster risks.
“Recommendations of the workshop will be submitted to theDirectorate of School Education, J&K as inputs for policy formulation inthe context of school safety measures,” said Prof. M. Sultan Bhat, Dean Schoolof Earth & Environmental Sciences, KU.
The resource persons for the various technical sessions ofthe workshop were eminent experts from, IRDR, UCL, London, National Instituteof Disaster Management (NIDM), New Delhi, Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague,National Institute of Technology (NIT), Srinagar and University of Kashmir. Thefocus of the workshop has been the capacity building of the concernedstakeholders to prepare a pool of the skilled trainers for the schools at thegrass root level.