Focus on prevention, preparation to blunt impact of disasters
Former Project Director, NDMA
THERE was a perfect balance among natural resources in the pre-industrial period that lent stability to the land use system. But this system started giving way in the post-industrial phase, especially as a result of industrialisation, deforestation and fast-paced development. The resultant climate change has led to an increase in the frequency and intensity of hydrometeorological disasters like landslides and cloudbursts in hills, floods in plains and cyclones in coastal regions. This year has seen catastrophic destruction in Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Kerala. The situation in the NCR, Mumbai, Pune, Jaipur, etc, is not much different. There has been a colossal loss of life and property. Thousands of people have died, many are missing and several others have been displaced. Many roads, bridges and dams have been washed away.
These disasters are a result of habitations that have been allowed to come up on the natural path of water movement and the infrastructure erected below the floodplain level. In the hills, fragile earth and rocks have been cut to construct roads and buildings. Mining is being carried out with complete disregard for the recommendations of the Environmental Impact Assessment and the Environmental Clearance. Forests have been degraded and damaged, reducing their power for water conservation and its smooth movement. Muck generated from construction and infrastructure development is dumped on the banks of rivers and streams to be carried away with flowing water, further raising the flood level and causing more damage and destruction. The floodgates of storage and run-of-the-river hydroelectric projects are not managed responsibly. Local residents and tourists in many places are caught off guard and washed away in flood waters in the absence of an early warning.
The scientific and dynamic National Policy on Disaster Management (NPDM), 2009, offers guidance for the holistic and strategic management of disasters. But what the policy contains is not being followed to the hilt, leading to the destruction these disasters inflict every year. The disaster management continuum in the policy is divided into the pre-disaster phase of prevention, preparation, early warning, mitigation and risk reduction and the post-disaster stage of response, rescue, evacuation, relief and rehabilitation. Most post-disaster needs assessment studies have shown that pre-disaster management is economically feasible and advantageous. This calls for a relook at the management strategy. Ensuring an effective response has always been prioritised in disaster management, ignoring the role of pre-disaster steps.
The situation demands better management of these hydrometeorological disasters. The scientific guidelines of the NPDM must be adopted. A fully prepared governance system — which prioritises prevention and adequate preparation — would drastically reduce the loss of life and property. There are standard operating procedures to prepare for all disasters. It is not understood why these are not followed. After all, half of the work is already accomplished if such a system is in place before a disaster strikes. Though the need for a comprehensive flood forecasting system has been felt, it has still not been developed. The India Meteorological Department and the Central Water Commission must promptly prepare such an early warning system for river basins, watersheds or dams in collaboration with states and union territories, as per the requirements.
Despite the launch of the National Landslide Risk Mitigation Project, there is no sign of an early warning system for predicting landslides. Doppler radars have been installed to predict heavy rains and disaster situations, but every year, they fail to deliver when required. And this year was no exception. Only early warning systems developed and installed for cyclones have helped ensure almost no loss of life and minimum damage to property in the affected coastal regions.
Although cloudbursts can’t be prevented, the resultant floods, flash floods and landslides — whether in isolation or in combination — can be minimised by continuously undertaking effective risk reduction and mitigation measures. A well-managed catchment in hills, through effective watershed management, will make the area stable and the drainage of water smooth, helping prevent or minimise floods and flash floods, checking the damage caused by cloudbursts and aiding in averting landslides. Undertaking construction of buildings and infrastructure away from rivers and streams and above the flood level will reduce the risk and mitigate the impact of floods and flash floods. An efficient and effective management of solid waste and cleaning the drainage systems in towns and cities would decrease and even eliminate the accumulation of water after heavy rains or cloudbursts and prevent floods.
In case pre-disaster measures fail, there must be foolproof post-disaster steps in place, namely an efficient and effective response, evacuation of those affected, housing them in safe places and providing immediate relief. In the worst-case scenario, those affected have to be rehabilitated and, if required, the damaged infrastructure reconstructed. Inferences from post-disaster needs assessment studies conducted by various agencies indicating that the cost of pre-disaster steps is much lower than that of a post-disaster response, relief, rehabilitation and reconstruction have not been taken seriously.
The management of hydrometeorological disasters calls for a paradigm shift towards developing, improving and strategising through the disaster management continuum covered in the NPDM. Early warning systems for all disasters must be developed and operationalised along the lines of those for cyclones to ensure better results. A sustainable development model, nature-based development and solutions would help mitigate the risk of disasters. The integration of disaster risk reduction and mitigation measures into development policy planning and implementation must get priority. All this needs to be monitored on a half-yearly or yearly basis for better outcomes. The earliest these policy guidelines and operations are adopted and implemented, the better they will be at tackling and managing these disasters.
