KATHMANDU, FEBRUARY 22
Vyas Municipality has launched BIPAD portal with the objective of managing integrated disaster information in Tanahun.
The portal was brought into operation under the chairmanship of Mayor Baikuntha Neupane in an event at the municipal hall today.
Building Information Platform Against Disaster portal is an integrated and comprehensive disaster information management system initiated by the Ministry of Home Affairs, and is owned by National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority.
This one-stop platform was developed with the concept of creating a national portal embedded with other independent platforms for national, provincial, and municipal governments with a bottom-up approach of disaster data partnership.
Youth Innovation Lab - a civic tech company - is assisting the MoHA and NDRRMA and has partnered with Vyas Municipality and 13 other local level governments to localise the BIPAD portal through Disaster Risk Reduction – Young Leaders Fellowship 2020, with the financial support from the USAID's TAYAR Nepal.
Speaking at the event, Mayor Neupane highlighted the usability and effectiveness of BIPAD portal in storing and retrieving disaster data and its use in strategic planning in disaster risk reduction.
Also speaking at the event, computer engineer Sulav K Shrestha said, "It's an amazing step towards data management."
Similarly, Pradip Khatiwada, executive director of YI- Lab, stressed that data/information placed in the portal had the potential to communicate disaster information and could be used in response, especially during post-disaster coordination.
The portal has details of disaster incidents that have taken place at Vyas Municipality, data regarding critical infrastructure of the municipality along with other disaster related information, read a press release issued by YI-Lab.
A version of this article appears in the print on February 23, 2021, of The Himalayan Times.
