The recovery and rehabilitation of cities following a disaster was the key theme at the Bangkok Sister Cities Week 2012 held by the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration last week.
Delegates who attended the event included mayors and city executives from Bangkok; Busan, South Korea; Budapest, Hungary; Fukuoka, Japan; Chouzhou and Guangzhou in China; Jakarta, Indonesia; and Manila, Philippines.
Jakarta is very similar to Bangkok in terms of its location in a downstream area and this means both cities are prone to floods due to high rainfall and rising sea levels.
Bangkok’s Governor, Sukhumbhand Paribatra, and Achmad Harjadi, deputy governor of the Spatial Planning and the Environment Department in Jakarta emphasised the important role governments need to play if “Urban Rehabilitation and Renewal” is to be successful. The responsibility for rehabilitation and renewal in Bangkok after disasters belongs not only to the city administration but also to the central government was one of the many points made at the discussion.
Close cooperation between local and central governments, serious enforcement of land use regulations, and an increase in green zones were among the other items stressed by participants at the two-hour discussion according to The Bangkok Post.
Hasegawa Eisuke, director-general of Japan’s Fukuoka prefecture, shared his experience in making his city better prepared for a disaster.
“River improvement and underground dams handle floods, and disaster information, such as weather and evacuation advice, is directly sent to citizens’ mobile phones,” he said.
The deputy governor of Bangkok, Wanlop Suwannadee assured the citizens of Bangkok that the city’s administration is taking the points of views of experts in sister cities to arrive at the best practices to help prevent future disasters.
