The 9 th meeting of the Regional Consultative Committee (RCC) on
Disaster Management is being held from Nov. 28- 30 in Phnom Penh,
Cambodia, to discuss methods of response to natural disasters and the
impact of climate change.
The meetings are
co-chaired by Vice Chairman of Cambodia’s National Committee for
Disaster Management Nhim Vanda and Chairman of the Asia Disaster
Preparedness Centre (ADPC) Krasae Chanowongse, with the participation of
officials from 26 countries, and development partners.
Addressing the opening ceremony, Nhim Vanda emphasised the importance
of the meeting in the context of continuing floods in Cambodia , Laos ,
Vietnam and Thailand .
Asia has been one
of the regions most affected by climate change. In Cambodian alone,
recent floods took 250 lives and caused economic losses of 521 million
USD, he said.
The meeting will also table the
progress and next steps of implementation of the RCC programme for
mitigating natural disasters.
Established by ADPC in
2000, RCC has provided a consultative mechanism to create strategies
aimed at easing the impacts of natural disasters in the region./.