2013 International Day for Disaster Reduction (IDDR) celebration in Limbe, Cameroon

Geotechnology Environmental Assessment and Disaster Risk Reduction (GEADIRR) joined the rest of the world in celebrations marking this year’s International Day for Disaster Reduction (2013). “The International Day for Disaster Reduction (IDDR) encourages every citizen and government to take part in building more disaster resilient communities and nations” Click here for more information. It is a day to remind us how people and communities are reducing their risk to disasters and raising awareness about the importance of DRR.

This opportunity was used to raise awareness at a secondary school - Atlantic Technical and Commercial College (ATCC) Limbe, with the theme: ‘Facing Disaster Together with Persons with Disabilities’. This college has been chosen due to its proximity to a regularly flooded river Jenguele river that flows through the city of Limbe and students of this college has suffered from flash flood from just about three (3) meters location of the college  from the River.

Considering October 13 was a Sunday which was directly followed by public holidays in Cameroon; the celebration was shifted to Wednesday, October 16 2013.

The main activity for the day was the sensitization of students and teachers on the aspect of disaster risk reduction in the community. A talk was presented by GEADIRR member F. Cletius in which different types of disasters (coastal erosion, mount Cameroon eruption, floods, landslide etc) that has rugged the city over the last two decades with vary degrees of impacts was discussed.  The level of vulnerability of the populations and the college in particular was discussed with the conclusion for the need to undertake a critical assessment of the underlying causes of related disasters in the city and to kick-start a process of building a resilience Limbe city that will permit the attainment of the country’s vision of an emerging economic by 2035 through the integration of risk reduction strategies in every developmental projects in the city.

It was also an interesting interactive session with these active students who were interested and came up with some ideas in preventing disaster like building a retentive wall to hold the soil and digging good drainage for runoff to keep their classroom safe.  It was proposed by a student that regular seminars be organized in during the months of April or May to reinforce community awareness in order to prepare for the next rainy season.