A delegation from Tajik governmental institutions involved in flood management went on a study tour to Switzerland and Bosnia and Herzegovina to learn to better deal with floods and strengthen the capacity in Tajikistan. The tour, which took place from 30 June to 7 July, was organized by the UNDP with the financial support from the Swiss Agency for Development.
According to UNDP Tajikistan, the mission of the training was to help the government maximize the efficiency of the recently introduced decentralized surface water resource management system in Tajikistan. Switzerland and Bosnia and Herzegovina, two flood-prone countries, both have decentralized water resource management systems that are among the world’s best.
In Switzerland, the delegation met representatives of the Swiss Federal Office for the Environment to learn about the distribution of responsibility for managing floods and other hazards on federal and cantonal levels. The participants also visited Obwalden canton to get a more localized perspective.
One of the key takeaway points from Obwalden was the high level of community engagement in funding and managing flood risk activities as well as the important role risk assessments play in prioritizing hazard reduction projects in the canton.
While the disaster management system in Bosnia and Herzegovina is quite different from that of Tajikistan, the process for flood risk management in the decentralized system provided insight into how flood risk could be managed under the Water Sector Reform.
The major flooding in 2014 was of particular interest to the delegation. Local authorities of Duboj, a city where the flood level had reached about four meters in height, shared their experience of dealing with the disaster as it hit and establishing protective measures for the future.
The delegation also held a series of meetings with experts from the country’s Federal Ministry of Security, Directorate of Civil Protection of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Directorate of Civil Protection of the Republika Srpska, and representatives of the UNDP in the country.
