disaster management
insight
challenges in disaster management
N Vinod Chandra Menon
ccording to the
World Disaster Report
2010 published by
the International
Federation of Red
Cross and Red Crescent Societies
(IFRC), during the period 2000
to 2009, as many as 85 percent of
the people affected by disasters
belonged to the Asia Pacific region.
The Global Assessment Report 2011
published by the United Nations
International Strategy for Disaster
Reduction (UN ISDR) estimates
that more than 90 percent of the
global population exposed to floods
live in South Asian, East Asian and
the Pacific countries. Among the
disaster-prone countries in South
Asia, India and Bangladesh are
highly vulnerable due to the large
population exposed to disasters
in India and the geographical,
riverine and topographical features
of coastal areas of Bangladesh
vulnerable to floods and cyclones.
In India as many as 200 million
Good governance
and responsive
administration have
to be seen as nonnegotiable features
of a dynamic
process of effective
interface with the
communities at risk
from the devastating
impact of disasters
people are exposed to recurring
floods every year. The high disaster
risk and exposure of millions of
people in India living in vulnerable
areas prone to geological disasters,
hydro-meteorological disasters
and man-made and technological
disasters makes it imperative that
a national campaign on mission
mode is launched to strengthen
disaster preparedness, prevention
and mitigation efforts in India. The
Vulnerability Atlas prepared by the
Building Materials Technology
Promotion Council (BMTPC)
highlights that 58.6 percent of the
geographical area in India falls
within seismic zones III, IV and
V which could face earthquakes
of moderate to very high intensity.
12 percent of the geographical area,
covering more than 40 million
hectares, faces recurring floods,
changing course of rivers and
river erosion. Along the 7516
km coastline, about 5700 km
are vulnerable to storm surge,
The author is a former Member of the National Disaster Management Authority.
YOJANA March 2012
13
cyclones and tsunami. More than
68 percent of the cultivable area is
vulnerable to drought. Landslides
and snow avalanches in unstable
slopes and high altitude terrain
also occur frequently. Due to
the pressures of the fast pace of
urbanization, modernization and
industrialization, the threats of manmade and technological disasters
have also increased substantially
as modern industrial units are
processing, storing and transporting
hazardous chemicals and hazardous
materials.
that the damages and economic
losses caused by natural disasters
are far exceeding acceptable levels
and are wiping out the hard earned
gains of development from the
disaster affected areas. Further, the
deployment of scarce resources for
post-disaster relief, reconstruction
and recovery are making a dent on
resources which are required by
sectors like health, education, social
welfare, etc. It is in this context that
an attempt is being made to analyse
the issues and challenges in disaster
management in India.
According to the World Bank,
during the period 1996 to 2000,
India lost approximately 2.25
percent of the Gross Domestic
Product and 12.15 percent of the
revenue annually due to natural
and man-made disasters. In the
first decade of the 21st century,
India faced devastating disasters
like the Bhuj earthquake in 2001,
the Indian Ocean Tsunami in 2004,
the Kashmir earthquake in 2005,
the Kosi floods in 2008, the Andhra
Pradesh and Karnataka floods in
2009, the Leh cloudburst and the
Uttarakhand floods in 2010 and
the Sikkim earthquake in 2011. It
is estimated that the cumulative
losses from the Kosi floods in
2008, the Andhra Pradesh and
Karnataka floods in 2009 and the
Uttarakhand floods in 2010 as
reported by the respective state
governments amounted to about
Rs. 80,000 crores. Given that the
financial allocation made by the 12th
Finance Commission for disaster
management during the period 2005
to 2010 was only Rs. 21,333 Crores
for the entire country, it is evident
Fragile Institutions
14
The National Policy on Disaster
Management prepared by the
National Disaster Management
Authority (NDMA), Government
of India and approved by the
Cabinet in 2009 was formulated
with the vision to build a safe
and disaster resilient India by
developing a holistic, proactive,
multi-disaster oriented and
technology driven strategy through
a culture of prevention, mitigation
and response. The National
Policy envisaged a paradigm shift
from the hitherto reactive postdisaster relief-centric regime to
a more proactive and enabling
environment of strengthened
disaster preparedness, mitigation
and improved emergency response
capacities of all stakeholder groups.
Mandated by the enactment of the
Disaster Management Act 2005,
institutional mechanisms like the
National Disaster Management
Authority (NDMA) chaired by
the Prime Minister of India at
the national level, State Disaster
Management Authorities (SDMAs)
chaired by the Chief Ministers of
the respective State Governments at
the state level and District Disaster
Management Authorities (DDMAs)
chaired by the respective District
Collectors and co-chaired by the
Sabhapatis of the Zilla Parishads at
the district level were established.
However, in many cases, these
institutions are not active and
operational except a few honorable
exceptions. Similarly, even though
the Disaster Management Act
2005 stipulated the setting up of
the Disaster Response Fund and
the Disaster Mitigation Fund at
national, state and district levels,
only the National and State Disaster
Response Funds have become
operational till now. The increasing
frequency and damage to property,
assets and infrastructure caused
by recurring disasters makes it
imperative that the provisions of the
Disaster Management Act 2005 are
enforced in letter and spirit.
Good governance and
responsive administration have
to be seen as non-negotiable
features of a dynamic process
of effective interface with the
communities at risk from the
devastating impact of disasters.
This process must be driven by
transparency and accountability
of public functionaries and their
ownership of the transition to
the paradigm shift rather than
continuing with a business as
usual attitude. In the event of a
sudden disaster, the restoration of
disrupted services, the effective
and efficient delivery of services to
the disaster-affected communities
YOJANA March 2012
and the setting up of a transparent
mechanism of ensuring that the
disaster affected people receive
the relief entitlements which are
intended for them have to be
necessarily integral components of
a good governance and responsive
administration at the district, state
and national levels. With the good
practice examples of deployment of
information technology innovations
like biometrics and smart cards
in humanitarian assistance in
recent disasters in some of the
countries affected by disasters,
our administrative machinery
has to explore ways of ensuring
efficiency and effectiveness in the
delivery of services, minimising
inordinate delays, red tape and
extraneous pressures of excluding
real victims and accommodating
false claimants. Community
Based Organisations and NonGovernmental Organisations can
play the role of watchdogs in
creating a level playing field
for the victims affected by
disasters. Wherever expedient
and unavoidable, justice has to
be ensured by resorting to the
instruments of good governance
like Right to Information and
legal options like Public Interest
Litigation. The recent examples
from Nepal, Thailand and China of
public functionaries being legally
challenged for their alleged acts of
commission and omission indicate
that fixing the accountability for
the consequences of inaction is
increasingly becoming a strong
feature of civic action for legal
remediation in disaster affected
areas.
YOJANA March 2012
Weak Compliance of Policies
The National Policy for Disaster
Management approved by the
Cabinet and released by the Prime
Minister of India has to be seen
as a statement of intent by the
Government of India in working
towards a disaster resilient India.
As envisaged in the Disaster
Management Act 2005, several
formidable Guidelines have
been prepared by the National
Disaster Management Authority
in consultation with the best
domain experts in the country
with suggested corrective action
to address the critical gaps which
are responsible for the weaknesses
in the management of disasters
in our country. However, the
follow up action expected from
the nodal agencies in preparing
Plans to address these aspects
of strengthening preparedness,
prevention, mitigation, emergency
response and recovery efforts in
these critical sectors remains to be
initiated. The recommendations of
the National Disaster Management
Guidelines on the management of
various disasters and cross cutting
themes have to be reviewed by all
stakeholder groups to ensure that
the paradigm shift envisaged in
the National Policy for Disaster
Management does not remain as
an aspiration.
Systemic Inefficiencies Influencing
Processes
T h e E l e v e n t h F i v e Ye a r
Plan document made a strategic
and pioneering shift towards
mainstreaming disaster management
in development planning and made
several strong suggestions in this
direction. The Finance Ministry of
the Government of India prescribed
radical changes in 2009 in the
formats for submission of plan
proposals from Ministries and
Departments of the Government
of India and State Governments
incorporating self-certification
by the proposing officials to the
effect that the proposals have
factored in the disaster risk and
vulnerability of the concerned
geographical area. However, the
continuing increase in the damage
and destruction of property, assets
and public infrastructure makes
it necessary to carry out random
audits of such proposals in areas
affected by disasters and to fix
accountability for the financial
loss on erring officials. This has
become necessary to streamline the
process of mainstreaming disaster
risk reduction in development
planning. It is also unfortunate
that most of the mitigation projects
proposed in the Eleventh Five
Year Plan have remained nonstarters. It is extremely important
that these proposed initiatives
are incorporated in the Twelfth
Five Year Plan (2012-2017) as
these have been conceptualized to
address some of the critical gaps
in the effective management of
disasters in India.
Need to Adopt Innovative Systems,
Techniques and Technologies
Most modern nations have
adopted innovative systems,
techniques and technologies
to improve the effectiveness
of disaster management. The
applications of Information
15
Technology, Information and
Communication Technology
(ICT), mobile communication
for dissemination of early warning
and alert messages, Geographical
information Systems, Global
Positioning System (GPS),
General Pocket Radio Service
(GPRS), Remote Sensing, Voice
over Internet Protocol (VoIP),
Radio over Internet Protocol
(RoIP), Scenario Analysis
and Modelling, biometrics for
family reunification in disasters
and complex humanitarian
emergencies, Digital elevation
M odels and bathymetry for
tsunami inundation modeling,
early warning systems, Doppler
radars, etc. are being increasingly
used by many countries. In India,
the Department of Information
Technologys satellite-linked
Common Service Centres (CSCs)
c an be used to disseminate
critical life saving messages
in local languages and dialects
to disaster-prone communities
instead of spending huge amounts
of money on television channels
for brief spots and incurring large
expenditure on advertisements
in newspapers and magazines.
The printing of public awareness
messages on postal stationery and
on railway tickets and boarding
passes of airlines will also have
the desired impact because of
the opportunity to familiarize
those who handle such products
in everyday routine use with
life-saving messages. A judicious
mix of indigenous traditional
knowledge and modern technology
is required to reach various
stakeholder groups for greater
16
public awareness on disaster risk
and vulnerability.
Need to Strengthen Capacities of
all Stakeholders
Capacity building of various
stakeholder groups is one of
the most formidable challenges
in a large nation facing high
risk from multiple disasters.
Training, public awareness,
research and education in disaster
management must reach out to
communities for strengthening
disaster preparedness, prevention,
mitigation, emergency response,
disaster resilient reconstruction
and recovery at local levels. It is
necessary to involve civil society
organizations, community based
organizations, corporate sector
entities, local administration
officials, elected representatives
and professionals in these activities.
The experience of Andhra Pradesh
and Karnataka in the 2009 floods
of washing away of 7.5 lakh houses
and 5.5 lakh houses respectively
must compel public functionaries
to ensure that all mass housing
schemes like Indira Awas Yojana
in the rural areas and Rajiv Awas
Yojana in urban and peri-urban
areas must comply with disaster
resilience features so that we are
not reconstructing risk in disasterprone areas. The approach document
of the 12th Five Year Plan has
observed that a major weakness
of the Indira Awaas Yojana (IAY)
has been the quality of housing.
There have been complaints
about weak foundations, poor
roofing materials and incomplete
constructions. There is a clear need
for developing and popularising
innovative, location-specific
technologies, materials, designs
and methods through a network
of institutions, which could result
in low-cost, environment friendly
and disaster resistant houses as per
local cultural preferences. Better
systems for monitoring of the
programme are also required.
It has to be recognized by
all stakeholder groups that the
temptation to claim post-disaster
relief by state governments
without shifting the emphasis
to strengthening disaster
preparedness, prevention and
mitigation is like a futile attempt
to trying to drain an overflowing
sink without looking at the root
cause of the leaking tap. It would
be more effective to make efforts
to close the tap or change the
washer to stop the leak, rather
than simply trying to drain the
sink. If we do not move in that
direction, we will continue to
be spending scarce resources on
providing post-disaster relief for
damaged property, assets and
infrastructure and continue to take
away resources from competing
needs for provision of essential
services like education, health
care, power supply, water supply,
sanitation, social welfare etc.
for those sections of the society
deprived of these basic needs for
generations. Faster, Inclusive
and more Sustainable Growth
envisaged in the 12th Five Year
Plan can be achieved only if
our planners, administrators and
policy makers realize this harsh
reality.
q
YOJANA March 2012
