Azerbaijan

Azerbaijan, Ismayilli, Diyalli community.

Introduction:

“Building Safe and Resilient Communities” project will conciliate 6 rural and 2 urban communities with knowledge and skills on anticipating, responding to and recovering from disasters.

The aim of the project is to strengthen resilience of targeted vulnerable rural and urban communities from Ismayilli and Zagatala districts of Azerbaijan Republic to natural and manmade disasters and to establish robust and strong communities.

After finalization of the vulnerability capacity assessment (VCA) a “Community based disaster action plan” will be developed within the frame of this project and hence implemented in those villages. The data will be shared with relevant government, non-government organizations, international organizations and other National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.

The project will create favourable conditions for coordination for all bodies engaged in disaster response and disaster risk reduction.

During 2013, a vulnerability and capacity assessment (VCA) carried out with community members in Diyalli village outlined the hazards and most important problems related to disasters. Analysing the information from the VCA – including the hazard mapping – it became clear that the most urgent need for the community was the repair of the bridge connecting Diyalli village with Sadyan village. Hence, in December 2013, the AzRCS Disaster Management team has initiated the activity jointly with community members and CBDRR team.

Since several years due to financial difficulties there was no opportunity for the community to repair the old bridge construction, which has been affected and damaged during times of flooding every year. It also should be mentioned that the local population extensively use this bridge: people pass through from village to village and children go through it to the nearest school.

With financial support of the BSRC project and with in-kind support of the community, the repair work itself included strengthening of the base of the bridge and some restoration, which now minimizes further possible damages caused by flooding. This initiative was completed in January 2014, and was highly appreciated by the local population as well as local authorities.

The project “Building Safe and Resilient Communities” has increased the level of awareness and preparedness of community members to disasters on the one hand and envisaged a vulnerability capacity assessment with the participation of communities and experts. The VCA report is shared relevant government bodies to enhance the attention to disaster risk reduction in the future.