Disaster Management-mitigation-floods-earthquakes
The Yokohama message emanating from
the international decade for natural disaster reduction in May 1994 underlined
the need for an emphatic shift in the strategy for disaster
mitigation. It was inter-alia stressed that disaster prevention,
mitigation, preparedness and relief are four elements which contribute to and
gain, from the implementation of the sustainable development
policies. These elements along with environmental protection and
sustainable development, are closely inter related. Therefore,
nations should incorporate them in their development plans and ensure efficient
follow up measures at the community, sub-regional, regional, national and
international levels. The Yokohama Strategy also
emphasized that disaster prevention, mitigation and
preparedness are better than disaster response in
achieving the goals and objectives of
vulnerability reduction. Disaster response alone is not
sufficient as it yields only temporary results at a very high
cost. Prevention and mitigation contribute to lasting improvement in
safety and are essential to integrated disaster management.
The Government of India have adopted mitigation and prevention as essential components of
their development strategy. The Tenth Five Year Plan document has a
detailed chapter on Disaster Management. The plan emphasizes the
fact that development cannot be sustainable without mitigation being built into
developmental process. Each State is supposed to prepare
a plan scheme for disaster mitigation in accordance with the approach outlined
in the plan. In brief, mitigation is being institutionalized into
developmental planning.
The Finance Commission makes recommendations
with regard to devolution of funds between the Central Government and State
Governments as also outlays for relief and rehabilitation. The
earlier Finance Commissions were mandated to look at relief and rehabilitation. The
Terms of Reference of the Twelfth Finance Commission have been changed and the
Finance Commission has been mandated to look at the requirements for
mitigation and prevention apart from its existing mandate of looking at relief
and rehabilitation. A Memorandum has been submitted to the Twelfth
Finance Commission after consultation with States. The Memorandum
proposes a Mitigation Fund.
The Government of India have issued guidelines that where there is a shelf of projects,
projects addressing mitigation will be given a priority. It has also
been mandated that each project in a hazard prone area will have disaster
prevention/mitigation as a term of reference and the project document has to
reflect as to how the project addresses that term of reference.
Measures for flood mitigation were taken from
1950 onwards. As against the total of 40 million hectares prone to
floods, area of about 15 million hectares have been protected by construction
of embankments. A number of dams and barrages have been constructed. The
State Governments have been assisted to take up mitigation programmes like
construction of raised platforms etc. Floods continue to be a menace
however mainly because of the huge quantum of silt being carried by the rivers
emanating from the Himalayas. This silt has raised the bed
level in many rivers to above the level of the
countryside. Embankments have also given rise to problems of
drainage with heavy rainfall leading to water logging in areas outside the embankment.
To evolve both short-term and long-term strategy for flood management/erosion
control, Government of India have recently constituted a Central Task Force
under the Chairmenship of Chairman, Central Water Commission. The
Task Force will examine causes of the problem of recurring floods and erosion
in States and region prone to flood and erosion; and suggest short-term and
long-term measures. The Task Force will submit its report by
December 2004.
Due to erratic behaviour of monsoons,
both low and medium rain fall regions, which constitute about
68% of the total area, are vulnerable to periodical
droughts. Our experience has been
that almost every third year is a drought
year. However, in some of the States, there may
be successive drought years enhancing
the vulnerability of the population in
these areas. Local communities have devised indigenous
safety mechanisms and drought oriented farming methods in many parts of the
country. From the experience of managing the past droughts
particularly the severe drought of 1987, a number of programmes have been
launched by the Government to mitigate the impact of drought in the long
run. These programmes include Drought Prone Area Programme (DPAP),
Desert Development Programme (DDP), National Watershed Development Project for
Rainfed Areas (NWDPRA), Watershed Development Programme for Shifting
Cultivation (WDPSC), Integrated Water Development Project (IWDP), Integrated
Afforestation and Eco-development Project Scheme (IAEPS).
In order to respond effectively to floods,
Ministry of Home Affairs have initiated National Disaster Risk Management
Programme in all the flood-prone States. Assistance is being provided to the States to draw up disaster management
plans at the State, District, Block/Taluka and Village levels. Awareness
generation campaigns to sensitize all the stakeholders on the need for flood
preparedness and mitigation measures. Elected representatives and officials are
being trained in flood disaster management under the programme. Bihar Orissa,
West Bengal, Assam and Uttar Pradesh are among the 17 multi-hazard prone States
where this programme is being implemented with UNDP. USAID and European
Commission.
A comprehensive programme has been taken up for
earthquake risk mitigation. Although, the BIS has laid down the standards for construction in
the seismic zones, these were not being followed. The building construction in urban and suburban
areas is regulated by the Town and Country Planning Acts and Building
Regulations. In many cases, the
Building regulations do not incorporate the BIS codes. Even where they do, the lack of knowledge
regarding seismically safe construction among the architects and engineers as
well as lack of awareness regarding their vulnerability among the population
led to most of the construction in the urban/sub-urban areas being without
reference to BIS standards. In the rural areas, the bulk of the housing is non-engineered
construction. The mode of construction
in the rural areas has also changed from mud and thatch to brick and concrete
construction thereby increasing the vulnerability. The increasing population has led to settlements
in vulnerable areas close to the river bed areas which are prone to
liquefaction. The Government have
moved to address these issues.
A National
Core Group for Earthquake Risk Mitigation has been constituted consisting of experts in earthquake engineering
and administrators. The Core Group has been assigned with the responsibility of drawing up a strategy and plan of action for mitigating the impact of earthquakes; providing advice and
guidance to the States on
various aspects of earthquake mitigation;
developing/organizing the preparation of handbooks/pamphlets/type designs for earthquake resistant construction; working
out systems for assisting the States in the seismically vulnerable zones to adopt/integrate appropriate Bureau of Indian Standards codes in their building byelaws;
evolving systems for training of municipal engineers as also practicing architects and engineers in the private sector
in the salient features of Bureau of Indian Standards
codes and the amended byelaws;
evolving a system of certification of
architects/engineers for testing their
knowledge of earthquake resistant construction; evolving systems for
training of masons and carry out
intensive awareness generation campaigns.
Most casualties during earthquakes are caused by
the collapse of structures. Therefore structural mitigation measures are the key to make a
significant impact towards earthquake safety in our country. In view of this the States in earthquake prone
zones have been requested to review, and if necessary, amend their building
bye-laws to incorporate the BIS seismic codes for construction in the concerned
zones. Many States have initiated necessary action in this regard. An Expert
Committee appointed by the Core Group on Earthquake Risk Mitigation has already
submitted its report covering appropriate amendments to the
existing Town & Country Planning Acts, Land Use Zoning Regulation, Development Control Regulations & Building
Bylaws, which could be used by the State Governments & the local bodies
there-under to upgrade the existing legal instruments. The Model Building
Bylaws also cover the aspect of ensuring technical implementation of the safety
aspects in all new constructions & upgrading the strength of existing
structurally vulnerable constructions. To facilitate the review of existing building byelaws and adoption of the
proposed amendments by the State Governments & UT administrations,
discussion workshops at regional level in the country are being
organized. It is expected that all
planning authorities and local bodies will soon have development control
regulations and building byelaws which would include multi-hazard safety
provisions.
There are Bureau of Indian Standard (BIS) codes which are relevant
for multi-hazard resistant design and construction. These codes have to be
regularly updated. An action plan has been drawn up for revision of existing
codes, development of new codes and documents/commentaries, and making these
codes and documents available all over the country including on-line access to
these codes. An Apex committee consisting of representatives of Ministry of
Consumer Affairs, BIS and MHA has
been constituted to review the
mechanism and process of development of codes relevant to earthquake risk
mitigation and establish a protocol for revision by BIS.
The States have been advised to constitute Hazard Safety Cells (HSC) headed by the Chief Engineer (Designs), State Public Works
Department with necessary engineering staff so as to establish mechanism
for proper implementation of the building codes in all future Govt.
constructions, and to ensures the safety of buildings and structures from
various hazards. The HSC will also be responsible for
carrying out appropriate design review of all Government buildings to be
constructed in the State, act as an advisory cell to the State Government on
the different aspects of building safety against hazards and act as a
consultant to the State Government for retrofitting of the lifeline
buildings. Rajasthan, West Bengal and Chhatisgarh have
already constituted these cells and other States are in the process.
Two National Programmes for Capacity Building in Earthquake Risk
Mitigation for Engineers and Architects respectively, have
been approved to assist the State Govts in building capacities for earthquake
mitigation. These two programmes are being implemented for training of 10,000
engineers and 10,000 architects in the States in seismically safe building
designs and related techno-legal requirements. Assistance is being provided to
the State/UTs to build the capacities of more than 125 State Engineering Colleges and 110Architecture Colleges to be able to provide advisory services to the State Govts to put
in place appropriate techno-legal regime, assessment of building and
infrastructures and their retrofitting. These institutions will
function as State Resource Institutions. Twenty-one National level Engineering
and Architecture Institutions have been designated as National Resource
Institutes to train the faculty members of selected State Engineering and
Architecture colleges. 450 engineering faculty members and 250 architecture
faculty members of these State Resource Institutions will be trained during the
current year.
A programme to assist the States/UTs in training and certification
of 50000 masons has been formulated in conultation with Housing and Urban
Development Corporation (HUDCO) and the Ministry of Rural Development. The
training module for masons to include multi-hazard resistant construction has
also been prepared by an expert committee, and revised curriculum will be introduced
in the vocational training programme of Ministry of Human Resource Development.
The role of engineers and architects is crucial in reducing
earthquake risks by ensuring that the construction adhere to the norms of
seismically safety. In view of this, the elements of earthquake engineering is
being integrated into the undergraduate engineering and architecture
courses. The model course curricula for adoption by
various technical institutions and universities have been developed and
circulated to the Universities and Technical Institutions for adoption in the
under graduate curricula. Ministry of Home Affairs is
working with All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE) and Council of
Architecture (COA) for introduction of revised curricula for
engineering and architecture course from 2005-2006.
Hospital preparedness is crucial to any disaster response system.
Each hospital should have an emergency preparedness plan to deal with mass
casualty incidents and the hospital administration/ doctor trained for this
emergency. The curriculum for medical doctors does not include Hospital
Preparedness for emergencies. Therefore capacity building through
in-service training of the current heath managers and medical personnel in
Hospital Preparedness for emergencies or mass causality incident management is
essential. At the same time, the future health managers must acquire these
skills systematically through the inclusion of health emergency management in
the undergraduate and post graduate medical curricula. In consultation with
Medical Council of India(MCI), two committees have been constituted for
preparation of curriculum for introduction of emergency health management in
MBBS curriculum, and preparation of in-service training of Hospital Managers
and Professionals. Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences Karnataka
have been identified as the lead national resource institution for the purpose.
While these mitigation measures will take
care of the new constructions, the
problem of unsafe existing buildings
stock would still remain. It will not be
possible to address the entire existing building stock, therefore the life line
buildings like hospitals, schools or buildings where people congregate like
cinema halls, multi-storied apartments are being focussed on. The
States have been advised to have these buildings assessed and where necessary
retrofitted. The Ministries of Civil Aviation, Railways,
Telecommunication, Power and Health and Family Welfare have been advised to
take up necessary action for detailed evaluation and retrofitting of lifeline
buildings located in seismically vulnerable zones so as to ensure
that they comply with BIS norms, Action plan have been drawn up by these
Ministries for detailed vulnerability analysis and retrofitting/ strengthening
of buildings and structures. The Ministry of Finance have been
requested to advise the financial institutions to give loans for retrofitting
on easy terms. Accordingly the Ministry of Finance had advised Reserve Bank
of India to issue suitable
instructions to all the Banks and Financial Institutions to see that BIS
codes/bye laws are scrupulously followed while financing/refinancing
construction activities in seismically vulnerable zones.
An Earthquake Mitigation Project has been drawn up, with an
estimated cost of Rs.1132 crore. The project has been given
in-principle clearance by the Planning Commission. The programme
includes detailed evaluation and
retrofitting of lifeline buildings such
as hospitals, schools, water and power supply units,
telecommunication buildings, airports/airport control towers, railway stations,
bus stands and important administrative buildings in the States in
seismic zones IV and V. The
programme also includes training of masons in earthquake
resistant constructions. Besides, assistance will
be provided under this project to the State Governments
to put in place appropriate techno legal regime. Startup
activities for implementation of this project have already been initiated.
An accelerated urban earthquake vulnerability reduction programme has
been taken up in 38 cities in seismic zones III, IV & V with population of half a
million and above. 474 Orientation programmes have been organized
for senior officers and representatives of the local planning and development
bodies to sensitize them on earthquake preparedness and mitigation measures.
The training programme for engineers and architects are being organized to
impart knowledge about seismically safe construction and
implementation of BIS norms. So far 1088
engineers and 825 architects have been trained. For enhanced school safety,
education programmes have been organized in schools, colleges and other
educational institutions. This programme will be further extended to 166
earthquake prone districts in seismic zones IV & V. Awareness generation
programmes, community and neighbourhood organizations have been started in
these cities. These cities are also being assisted to review and amend their
building bye-laws to incorporate multi hazard safety provisions. City Disaster
Management Plans are being developed under the project. Nine Cities
have prepared city Disaster Management Plans.
Rural housing and community
assets for vulnerable sections of the population are
created at a fairly large scale by the Ministry of Rural
Development under the Indira Awas Yojna(IAY) and Sampooran
Grameen Rojgar Yojna(SGRY). About 250
thousand small but compact housing units are constructed
every year, besides community assets such as community
centres, recreation centres, anganwadi centres etc. Technology
support is provided by about two
hundred rural housing centres spread over the
entire country. The Ministry of Home Affairs is working with
the Ministry of Rural Development for changing the guidelines so that the
houses constructed under IAY or school buildings/community buildings
constructed under SGRY are earthquake/cyclone/flood resistant; as also that the
schemes addressing mitigation are given priority under
SGRY. Ministry of Rural Development are carrying out an exercise for
this purpose. This initiative is
expected to go a long way in popularization
of seismically safe construction at
village/block level .
A project for Cyclone
Mitigation (estimated cost Rs. 1050
crore) has been drawn up in consultation with the cyclone prone States. This
project envisages construction of cyclone shelters, coastal shelter belt
plantation in areas which are prone to storm surges, strengthening of warning
systems, training and education etc. This project has also been given
in-principle clearance by the Planning Commission and is being taken up with
World Bank assistance.
A National Core Group has been
constituted under the Chairmanship of Secretary, Border Management and
comprising of Secretary, Department of Science and Technology, Secretary, Road
Transport & Highways, and the Heads of Geological Survey of India and
National Remote Sensing Agency for drawing up a strategy and plan of action for
mitigating the impact of landslides, provide advise and guidance to the State
Governments on various aspects of landslide mitigation, monitor the activities
relating to landslide mitigation including landslide hazard zonation and to
evolve early warning systems and protocols for landslides/landslide risk
reduction. The Government have designated Geological Survey of India (GSI) as
the nodal agency responsible for coordinating/ undertaking geological studies,
landslides hazard zonation, monitoring landslides/avalanches, studying the
factors responsible and suggesting precautionary and preventive measure. The
States/UTs have been requested to share the list of habitation close to
landslide prone areas in order to supplement GSI’s on going assessment of such
areas based on the Survey of India’s Toposheet and their existing data base on
landslide for the purpose of landslide hazard zonation being carried out by
them. A national strategy for mitigating landslide hazard in the country is
being drawn up in consultation with all the agencies concerned.
A Disaster Risk Management Programme has been taken up in 169 districts in 17 multi-hazard prone
States with the assistance from UNDP, USAID and European Union. Under this
project, the States are being assisted to draw up State, district and Block level
disaster management plans; village disaster management plans are
being developed in conjunction with the Panchayati Raj Institutions
and disaster management teams consisting of village volunteers are
being trained in various preparedness and response functions such as search and
rescue, first aid, relief coordination, shelter management
etc. Equipment needs for district and State Emergency
Operation Centres have been identified by the State nodal agencies and
equipment is being provided to equip these EOCs. Orientation
training of masons, engineers and architects in disaster resistant technologies
have been initiated in these districts and construction of model demonstration
buildings will be started soon.
Under this programme Disaster Management Plans
have been prepared for 8643 villages, 1046 Gram Panchayat, 188 blocks and 82
districts. More than 29000 elected representatives of Panchayati Raj
Institutions have already been trained, besides imparting training to members
of voluntary organizations. About 18000 Government functionaries have been
trained in disaster mitigation and preparedness at different levels. 865
engineers and 425 architects have been trained under this programme in
vulnerability assessment and retrofitting of lifeline buildings. 600 master
trainers and 1200 teachers have already been trained in different districts in
disaster preparedness and mitigation. Disaster Management Committees consisting
of elected representatives, civil society members, Civil Defence volunteers and
Government functionaries have been constituted at all levels including
village/urban local body/ward levels. Disaster Management Teams have been
constituted in villages and are being imparted training in basic functions of
first aid, rescue, evacuation and related issues. The thrust of the programme
is to build up capabilities of the community since the community is invariably
the first responder. During the recent past, it has been experienced that the
capacity building of the community has been very helpful even in normal
situations when isolated instances of drowning, burns etc. take place. With the
creation of awareness generation on disaster mitigation, the community will be
able to function as a well-knit unit in case of any emergency. Mock drills are
carried out from time to time under the close supervision of Disaster
Management Committees. The Disaster Management Committees and Disaster
Management Teams have been established by notifications issued by the State
Governments which will ensure that the entire system is institutionalized and
does not disintegrate after the conclusion of the programme. The key points
being stressed under this programme are the need to ensure sustainability of
the programme, development of training modules; manuals and codes, focused
attention to awareness generation campaigns; institutionalization of disaster
management committees and disaster management teams, disaster management plans
and mock-drills and establishment of techno-legal regimes.
Recognizing that awareness about vulnerabilities
is a sine qua non for inducing a mindset of disaster prevention, mitigation and
preparedness, the Government has initiated a nation-wide awareness generation
campaign as part of its overall disaster risk management strategy. In order to
devise an effective and holistic campaign, a steering committee for mass media
campaign has been constituted at the national level with due representation of
experts from diverse streams of communication. The Committee has formulated a campaign
strategy aimed at changing peoples’ perception of natural hazards and has
consulted the agencies and experts associated with advertising and media to
instill a culture of safety against natural hazards.
Apart from the use of print and electronic media,
it is proposed to utilize places with high public visibility viz. hospitals,
schools, railway stations and bus terminals, airports and post offices,
commercial complexes and municipality offices etc. to make people aware of
their vulnerabilities and promote creation of a safe living environment.
A novel method being tried is the use of
government stationery viz. postal letters, bank stationery, railway tickets,
airline boarding cards and tickets etc. for disseminating the message of
disaster risk reduction. Slogans and messages for this purpose have already
been developed and have been communicated to concerned Ministries/agencies for
printing and dissemination. The mass media campaign will help build the
knowledge, attitude and skills of the people in vulnerability reduction and
sustainable disaster risk management measures.
Disaster management as a subject in Social Sciences has been
introduced in the school curriculum for Class VIII & IX. The Central Board of
Secondary Education (CBSE) which has
introduced the curriculum runs a very large number of schools throughout the
country and the course curriculum is invariably followed by the State Boards of
Secondary Education. Teachers are being trained to teach disaster management
Syllabus for Class X is being finalized and will be introduced in the course
curriculum soon. The State Governments have been advised to take similar steps
vis-à-vis their school boards. Several Provincial Governments have
already introduced the same curriculum in Class VII. Ministry
is working with the Council of Board of School Education (COBSE) to
facilitate inclusion of disaster management in public education in all 39
School Boards in the country.
In order to assist the State Governments in
capacity building and awareness generation activities and to learn from past
experiences including sharing of best practices, the Ministry of Home Affairs
has compiled/prepared a set of resource materials developed by various
organisations/institutions to be replicated and disseminated by State Governments
based on their vulnerabilities after translating it into the local languages.
The voluminous material which runs in about 10000 pages has been divided into 4
broad sections in 7 volumes. These sections cover planning to cope with
disasters; education and training; construction toolkit; and information,
education and communication toolkit including multi-media resources on disaster
mitigation and preparedness. The Planning section contains material for
analyzing a community’s risk, development of Preparedness. Mitigation and
disaster management plans, coordinating available resources and implementing
measures for risk reduction. The model bye-laws, DM Policy, Act and model
health sector plan have also been included. Education and Training includes material
for capacity building and upgradation of skills of policy makers,
administrators, trainers, engineers etc. in planning for and mitigating against
natural disasters. Basic and detailed training modules in disaster preparedness
have been incorporated along with training methodologies for trainers, for
community preparedness and manuals for training at district, block, panchayat
and village levels. For creating a disaster-resistant building environment, the
Construction Toolkit addresses the issue of seismic resistant construction and
retrofitting of existing buildings. BIS Codes, manuals and guidelines for RCC,
Masonry and other construction methodologies as also for repair and
retrofitting of masonry and low-rise buildings have been included.
IEC material seeks to generate awareness to
induce mitigation and preparedness measures for risk
reduction. Material and strategies used by various States and
international organizations, including tips on different hazards, have been
incorporated along with multi-media CDs on disasters. The material has been
disseminated to all the State Governments/UT Administrations with the request
to have the relevant material, based on the vulnerability of each district,
culled out, translated into local languages and disseminate it widely down to
the village level.
A special focus is being given
to North-Eastern States and the Andaman & Nicobar Islands. The
North-Eastern Council has been made the nodal agency for the NE States. The NEC
has been provided with a resource person/advisor in disaster
management. A detailed presentation on the vulnerabilities of the NE
region and the need for comprehensive disaster management plan has been made in
the Governing Body of NE Council. An action plan has been drawn up by NEC and a
declaration namely “Shillong Declaration” has been adopted by States in the NE
region for integrating disaster management with development
planning. 140 officials and non-officials have been
trained in disaster management to act as resource persons for the NE
region. State and district level sensitization and training
programmes are being carried out.
The various prevention and mitigation measures
outlined above are aimed at building up the capabilities of the communities,
voluntary organisations and Government functionaries at all levels. Particular
stress is being laid on ensuring that these measures are institutionalized
considering the vast population and the geographical area of the country. This
is a major task being undertaken by the Government to put in place mitigation
measures for vulnerability reduction. This is just a beginning. The ultimate
goal is to make prevention and mitigation a part of normal day-to-day life. The
above mentioned initiatives will be put in place and information disseminated
over a period of five to eight years. We have a firm conviction that with these
measures in place, we could say with confidence that disasters like Orissa
cyclone and Bhuj earthquake will not be allowed to recur in this country; at
least not at the cost, which the country has paid in these two disasters in
terms of human lives, livestock, loss of property and means of
livelihood.
No comments:
Post a Comment