Project Overview [Tamba]
About the Tamba Torrential Rain Disaster
In August 2014, torrential rain hit Ichijima-cho, Tamba City. The massive rain triggered floods and sediment flows that destroyed houses, paddy fields and many other places in the low-lying area. However, with the help of young people who were visiting their parents for summer vacation and of local fire brigades, early evacuation of older residents was made possible. Also, the local government issued timely and localized warning information advising evacuation to upper floors within houses. All these efforts made damage to human lives minimized.
There were many lessons learned from this disaster experience. Person-to-person linkage saving lives is one, and weakened soil in mountains due to abandoned forests with planted trees causing sediment flows in combination with torrential rain is another.
Tamba City’s Disaster Recovery Community Development Project
SEEDS Asia first paid a visit to Tamba City when a Japan study visit was conducted for delegates of the Philippines under a JICA-supported grassroots project. It had been about a year since the disaster, and 2 months since the City’s plan for disaster recovery had been launched. The City’s Disaster Recovery Promotion Department was willing to partner with private sector for their disaster recovery, so SEEDS Asia proposed a project to develop disaster risk reduction (DRR) education programs for the City in collaboration with its Board of Education (BOE).
In this project, selected schools and BOE members participated in a series of meetings to discuss
– Pioneering models of DRR education in collaboration with the community
– Planning for the implementation and roll-out of DRR education in full use of Tamba’s local resources
– DRR education supplementary readers to pass down the disaster experience for the city-wide use
– Training of DRR education practitioners
– Establishing a network to promote DRR education.
Tamba City Revitalizing City Promotion Partnership Project
Hyogo Voluntary Plaza’s Community Development Projects for Not-for-Profits
Tamba City is challenged by its aged population which could be accelerated by the disaster. Therefore, the City is not only encouraging domestic immigrants from other parts of Japan, but also welcoming visitors as “semi-residents” through its promotional activities. SEEDS Asia became a partner under the scheme of “Disaster Recovery Study Tour”.
The purpose of study tours is to build capacity of local residents so they can provide experiential learning programs with the themes of disaster risk reduction and recovery, and contribute to increasing the number of “semi-residents”. Designing tour contents, and capacity building of hosting communities were implemented, and through combining funds, a series of events were hosted for university students and families with small children.