Protecting communities from natural disasters in Armenia
By Nino Antadze, Disaster Reduction Adviser, UNDP Armenia

Armenia is a landlocked country located in the Caucasus region exposed to a number of recurring natural hazards, such as earthquakes, floods, landslides, wind storms and hailstorms, which dramatically impact the economy of communities. As the disaster reduction adviser in UNDP Armenia, my main focus is to make communities safer from natural disasters.

UNDP is particularly active in the Ararat region, one of the disaster-prone regions in Armenia. It supports local level disaster risk management, helping communities reduce their levels of vulnerability to natural disasters. UNDP provides training to at-risk communities and assists them in developing and implementing disaster preparedness plans. As part of these plans, and based on a locally-led risk assessment, communities prioritize mitigation activities that will reduce their exposure to natural disasters.

The Noramarg and Ditak communities were suffering from overflowing of nearby channels two to three times a year due to heavy rain falls, causing significant damages to infrastructure and livelihoods. The communities agreed that the rehabilitation of their draining system was the first mitigation activity to undertake. One of the Ditak community representatives recently noted, “We were encouraged to participate in the rehabilitation of the drainage system in our village and now our community will be much safer in future floods. We feel more ownership over such initiatives and will make an effort to maintain the channel regularly. We understand the importance of focused disaster prevention activities.”

My goal is to ensure that the experiences of the Noramarg and Ditak communities are replicated throughout the Ararat region and in other at-risk regions of Armenia. CPR

Listen to Nino Antadze, Disaster Reduction Adviser, UNDP Armenia, talk about UNDP's disaster risk reduction efforts in Armenia (streaming audio or download mp3)

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In this Issue

> Six months after Cyclone Nargis
> Success story: Indonesia
> Lessons from Bangladesh
> Natural disasters in Kyrgystan
> Women and disaster recovery
> Natural disasters in Armenia
> Spotlight on Staff

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