"the institute for catastrophic loss reduction (iclr)" ’s mission "is to reduce the loss of life and property caused by severe weather and earthquakes through the identification and support of sustained actions that improve society’s capacity to adapt to, anticipate, mitigate, withstand and recover from natural disasters. iclr is achieving its mission through the development and implementation of its programs "open for business," to increase the disaster resilience of small businesses, "designed for safer living," which increases the disaster resilience of homes, and "rsvp cities," to increase the disaster resilience of communities." in their february 2013 report, iclr offered a number of adaptive proactive measures that municipalities could undertake to mitigate damage from sewer backup, which is a serious problem across canada, for homeowners, municipalities and insurers. during regional sewer backup events, at the lot-side, foundation drainage could be disconnected and eavestrough downspouts angled, to limit inflow of excess water into municipal sanitary sewer systems. backwater valves reduce the "risk of sewer backup through isolation of homes from underground municipal sewers systems during sewer system surcharge."