Japan grants 584 million yen for disaster prevention and reconstruction

Japan has extended grant of 584 million yen through the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) for disaster prevention and disaster reconstruction in South Asia. This assistance was announced under 'Earthquake Risk Reduction and Recovery Preparedness Programme for South Asian Region.'

Issuing a press release, Embassy of Japan in Nepal said that the contract letter was signed on 16 March in New York between Kenzo Oshima, Ambassador to the Permanent Representative of Japan to the United Nations, and John Ohiorhenuan, Deputy Assistant Administrator and Senior Deputy Director at Bureau for Crisis and Prevention and Recovery, UNDP.

"In Asia, particularly South Asian region is one of the most natural-disaster-prone regions, such as tsunami in the Indian Ocean in 2004 and the earthquake in Pakistan in 2005. The number of victims by the natural disasters (deaths and injuries) as well as economic damage is so great that they are giving major damage on the development efforts within the region," said the release.

The release said further it is important to improve the capacity of communities, countries and regions to deal with earthquake disaster, promote works centered on quake-proof public buildings, reduce disaster in the event it occurred, by using Japan’s knowledge on disaster prevention and the networks and know-how developed by the UN-related organizations.
 
Among the natural disasters that are becoming threats to the countries in the South Asian region, earthquakes occurring in various places in recent years are resulting in huge damages.

The assistance will be implemented as a part of measures for disaster prevention and reconstruction assistance (more than 2,500 million dollars over the next five years mainly for the Asia and African region) that Mr. Junichiro Koizumi, former Prime Minister of Japan, pledged in the Asian-African Summit, which was held in Indonesia in April 2005.