The third World Congress on Disaster Management will be held at Gitam University for five days from Monday.
The Government of Andhra Pradesh, Disaster Management Initiative and Convergence Society (DMICS) and the university are organising the Congress. The second edition was hosted by Andhra University and the GoAP in 2015 in the city.
Addressing the media along with Chairman of the Scientific and Technical CommitteeP.G. Dhar Chakrabarti, district Collector Pravin Kumar said about 100 international experts from 60 countries would participate.
Besides 1000 delegates representing various governments, international organisations, scientific and technical organisations and NGOs would participate.
Lok Sabha Deputy Speaker M. Thambidurai will be the chief guest at the conference, to be inaugurated by Deputy Chief Minister N. China Rajappa.
The theme of the conference “Building resilience to disasters” would be relevant to Visakhapatnam and the coastal districts vulnerable to cyclones and would present right opportunity for capacity building.
In the second Congress 1550 delegates and the proceedings of 1000-page book was printed and they were being taken as a model by various countries, S. Ananda Babu, convener of the third WCDM said.
Dr. Chakrabarti, former Union Home Secretary, said the Congress would comprise eight plenary sessions on building resilience to disasters that were increasing and 30 thematic sessions. It will also have three special feature events.
DMICS has developed a model to collaborate and bringing together several partners. They include NDRF, NDMA, NIDM, JNU, Save the Children, NAPSIPAG, Caritas, Care, Oxfam and Nature. He praised Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu for taking the lead in holding the Congress.
He said it was the largest world conference on disaster management outside the UN system. Switzerland holds it every two years and Canada, only on business resilience.
Dr. Chakrabarthi said building resilience encompassed several sectors including agriculture, food security, infrastructure, production, industry, livelihood and city resilience and the plenary session would cover them.
One interesting and unique session would be on robotics and artificial intelligence and how AI could play a role in disaster management.
The recommendations of the conference would supplement the efforts of the government in meeting various targets set for 2030 in mitigating disasters, reducing the number of people affected, bringing down deaths and developing early warning systems.