DUSHANBE, August 6, 2010, Asia-Plus  -- Tajikistan’s Red Crescent Society (RCS) has begun to develop the reserve disaster response plan in the framework of the project, Building Long-term Resilience of Communities to Emergencies through Reducing Disaster Risks in Central Asia, according to the RCS headquarters in Dushanbe.

The plan is being developed to help communities enhance their capacity to withstand disasters such floods that hit the Kulob region in May this year, the source said.  According to him, they plan to develop standard disaster response procedures for all units of RCS in order to enhance the disaster relief units’ capacity to respond to disasters that occur in the country every year.

“The plan must be developed in coordination with partners and cover all disaster response mechanisms existing in Tajikistan, as well as be closely associated with the recently developed interagency reserve emergency response plan,” the source noted.

He added that the community resilience and disaster risk reduction project was being implemented under support of the consortium, comprising the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, Red Cross Societies of the Netherlands, the United States, and Germany under financial support of the Humanitarian Aid Department of the European Commission (ECHO).   The main keeper of donor relationships is the Netherlands Red Cross Society, which has big experience  in implementing project action plans in Central Asia.

The project is aimed at building up sustainable local potential through introduction of simple and accessible measures to strengthen human and physical resources in the areas prone to natural disasters.