Japanese grant assistance for DRR Project in Chitwan

 The government of Japan has extended $707,953 (around Rs 82.6 million), to Shapla Neer - Citizens’ Committee in Japan for Overseas Support, under the grant assistance for Japanese NGO Projects Schemes. Shapla Neer – an international NGO based in Japan – will work with a Nepali partner NGO, Rural Reconstruction Nepal (RRN), to implement the Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) Strengthening Project in Chitwan District, according to a press note issued by the Japanese Embassy in Kathmandu.

A grant contract relating to the project was signed and exchanged on February 5, 2021 by ambassador of Japan to Nepal Saigo Masamichi and country representative of Shapla Neer Nepal Office Katsui Hiromi, at the Embassy of Japan in Kathmandu, the press note reads, adding that the grant assistance will be used to strengthen community resilience to disasters in Madi Municipality, a flood prone area in Chitwan district.

The project will coordinate closely with local government, stakeholders and community members to achieve capacity development of local government and communities, establishment and maintenance of infrastructure, and DRR public awareness activities.

“The project – under capacity development of local government and communities – plans to develop the capacity of local institutions such as the Local Disaster Management Committees (LDMCs), Ward Disaster Management Committees (WDMCs) and Community Disaster Management Committees (CDMCs) on disaster risk reduction, and facilitate the cooperation between these committees and other stakeholders,” it reads, adding that the project will – under establishment and maintenance of infrastructure –establish and maintain infrastructure. “The project will support construction of river widening, gabions, and embankments, as well as retention walls and drainage systems.”

CDMCs will establish the maintenance system to keep the structures functional.

Likewise, under DRR public awareness activities, the project will prepare and distribute a self-learning brochure on DRR among government bodies, stakeholders and other NGOs, it added.

The Embassy of Japan in Nepal claimed that it expects the project to contribute towards improving DRR in the local communities in Chitwan and will develop as a good practice for DRR in other districts in Nepal. It is also confident that the project will contribute towards furthering the cordial friendship between the peoples of Japan and Nepal.