Four day long workshop on Get Airports Ready for disaster
February 5, 2017
Tamish Giri-Kathmandu
Four day long workshop on getting airports arranged to handle disaster has been concluded on Friday 3 February. The workshop program was targeted on arranging TIA and Nepalgunj airports for disaster. The training started in Kathmandu on Tuesday.
The workshop was attended by over thirty officials from government agencies, airport authorities along with military and humanitarian partners.
Since airport plays a vital role in quick landing and connecting humanitarian and relief supplies after a calamity and it has adequate infrastructure to deliver the lifesaving support to the affected communities. So the airport team needs to be well trained about the necessary protocols which include handling of heavy air traffic and flow of supplies along with the rescue officers.
The earthquake of April 2015 has already shown us that adequate infrastructure and effective logistic operation can save both lives and countries economy.
TIA was flooded with maximum humanitarian aid supplies and rescue teams from across the world within a period of forty eight hours. But after a week from the earthquake the airport wasn’t able to land big aircrafts as the runway was damaged from the arrival of the flights delivering aid.
Analyzing the lesson left behind by the quakes, Nepal’s airport authorities, Home Ministry officials, Nepal Army and various humanitarian organization officers had come together to strengthen the post-disaster preparedness management at TIA and Nepalgunj airports.
The participants and trainers were evaluated with the current level of preparedness at the two airports and had also been through the trainings on action plans for ensuring Nepal airports to be prepared for future purposes.
The four-day Get Airports Ready for Disaster workshop was leaded by Deutsche Post DHL Group (DPDHL) and United Nation Development Programme (UNDP).
Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal, Home Ministry of Nepal, DHL and UNDP had jointly conducted the four day long campaign. Chris Weeks, Director of Humanitarian Affairs for DHL and Valerie Julliand, UNDP Resident Coordinator were the guest of honor at four day long campaign.
