Kathmandu, November 23:

Vice President Paramananda Jha today stressed on the need to find ways and means to mitigate disaster and their risks in mainstream development and work out a multi-faceted disaster preparedness.

He was speaking at the inaugural function of a two-day international conference on Disaster and Development that kicked off in the capital today.

Jha hoped that the conference would come up with pragmatic and meaningful recommendations that would be valuable for both the government and the development agencies.

He viewed that, in order to increase disaster responsiveness, development programmes must be sensitive to the disasters. He added that multi-faceted approaches should be recommended from research and technology development to education and awareness building, planning, designing and construction of physical infrastructure in responding to disasters. Dr Upendra Gautam, chairman of Nepal Engineering College (NEC), said the conference would recommend possible ways to minimising the disasters, applicable in the base level.

Some 40 technical papers relevant on numerous issues relating to disaster preparedness are being presented in the conference. Amod Mani Dixit, director of National Society for Earthquake Technology (NSET), said the conference would be attended by over 100 participants from both home and abroad.

The conference that intends to share know-how on ways and means of mainstreaming concerns on disaster risks and their mitigation was jointly organised by NEC, Ehime University,

Japan and NSET in association with Ministry of Home Affairs, Ministry of Local Development and Ministry of Physical Planning and Works.