Updated on: Friday, February 24, 2012
Kochi is among the four cities besides madurai, Howrah and Vishakapatnam that have been selected by International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives, a global body for implementing a project called 'Asian Cities Adapt' to look ways to reduce the risks of climate change. Hence the city Corporation will soon get a project to tackle the impact of climate change.
The project to be co-ordinated by the Union Government will have Cochin university of science and Technology as the Scientific partner to the project. ICEL organised a workshop and meeting of stakeholders in Kolkatta early this week as a preparatory exercise.
The Chairman of the Corporation Town Planning Committee,Mr. S.J.Sohan who attended the workshop held in Kolkatta, stated that the project is meant to adapting to the growing issue of climate change and formulating strategies to address them. Issues pertaining to various sectors like farming, drainage system, carbon emissions and construction activities in the city will be taken into consideration while chalking a strategy. He said that the city's specific features are being considered for the project preparation.
According to Dr. Hareendranathan Nair of the CUSAT School of Environmental Studies , “CUSAT has been asked to prepare a zonation mapping of the city where the city would be divided into zones and details of each zone will be looked into which would also look at the vulnerability factors like rising sea level, heavy rain, flooding, etc. Based on this, the strategies to be adopted would be readied.”
Kochi is in the frontline of the country's seaside cities that can potentially be affected by climate change, mostly in the form of inundation due to sea level rise as per the assessment made by ICLEL.
Mr. Sohan said that Active involvement of various stakeholders like City Corporation, Chamber of Commerce, Merchants’ Union, Residents’ Association Apex Council and Kudumbasree was important for implementing the project.