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Opinion
Disaster Ready India?
A Distant Dream
by
Col. Rahul K. Bhonsle
The Barmer
district in Rajasthan is a parched dry land which is perpetually drought
prone. The hardy people have learned to survive the heat and sand which
rages the plains every summer. What they were not prepared for was the
deluge that struck them in the third week of August, when over 577 mm of
rains in three days flooded the area with unofficial estimates of deaths
varying from 300 to 500. Further South, Gujarat was recovering from
incessant flooding of its prime cities, a deluge of plenty for which the
state was ill prepared. Surat India’s diamond city was flooded for over
three days, with hundreds of people stranded on roof tops without water
and food. The country’s premier oil and gas refineries in the state
remained closed for days on end. The story was the same as we go
southwards to Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh or the Central Indian
states of Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh and Orissa. Floods have taken many
lives in India this year.
The causes some say are less due to nature’s fury and more due to man’s
follies. Water had to be released from many check dams in Gujarat to
prevent a dam burst, flooding many cities including Surat. There was no
anticipation and hence no plan to avert such a crisis, as a result the
response was left to some junior engineers, who benchmarked their
reactions purely on the local situation rather then visualizing what
would happen downstream.
What the Western states of the country have been experiencing in 2006
has been common place in India’s central and eastern states particularly
Bihar and Assam which experience perennial flooding due to monsoons,
mostly due to lax management of the waterways including rivers and
canals which span the country side. Dredging of silt in canals is
sanctioned every year, but the money is siphoned away leading to gradual
silting and massive overflows.
Floods and monsoons in India are invariably followed by diseases
bordering on epidemics. Dysentery, diarrhea, malaria and Japanese
Encephalitis and now Chikungua fever have become common place during the
monsoons. Even the national capital, Delhi has its yearly bout of
dengue, causing many deaths.
What about other types of disasters whether it is natural or man made?
In Meerut, a major city two hours drive from Delhi, approximately 100
people died due to accidental fire in an exhibition pandal which had
been raised violating all norms of fire safety. The summer season is the
worst for fire hazards in the country. Slums and shopping centers are
badly hit with fires razing many homes and shops to the ground causing
death and destruction.
Lately the country has invested considerable resources in establishing a
disaster management agency, National Disaster Management Agency (NDMA)
with a retired Chief of the Army Staff, General N C Vij, with a penchant
for organizational efficiency as its head. The Agency has got down to
its task in real earnest and has raised expectations of tackling this
menace at its roots. It appears well prepared to provide policy guide
lines, preparatory advice and support to various states and local
bodies. The problem it faces is however mitigation.
While most people view disaster management as a function of speedy
relief and rehabilitation, the key to avoidance of a catastrophe is
mitigation. Thus even as Japan is struck by earth quakes many times of
the year, there are no casualties nor any noticeable destruction of
property due to mitigatory measures taken across the board. Mitigation
in India with a dysfunctional administration which is not able to
implement simple building laws due to public and political pressure is
difficult to achieve. Civic agencies characteristically rely on court
orders to implement any unpopular action even when it is in the
interests of public safety.
Under the circumstances, the people of India seem doomed to suffer the
vestiges of nature’s fury being converted into catastrophes on a regular
basis, year after year till the people realize that a small sum of money
invested in simple precautionary measures can save many lives and be a
part of voluntary mitigation rather than enforced one which is not
likely to succeed in India where democracy is increasingly assuming
connotations of misrule by many.
August 27,
2006
Top
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Opinion
The Week of August 27, 2006
Blind Men of Hindustan by Rajinder Puri
Japan: A Great & Unique Nation by Dr.
Subhash Kapila
India, The West & Muslim Minorities by Gaurang
Bhatt, MD
To Reject Vande Mataram is No Treason
by V. Sundaram
Empires and Dust: Travels in Modern India - 1
by Ashish Nangia
Disaster Ready India? A Distant Dream by Col
Rahul K. Bhonsle
Soaring High to Sublimity by TA Ramesh
Wise Old Man Under the Banyan Tree by Dr.
Vidur Jyoti
Education for Character Building by Pradip
Bhattacharya
Reflected Glory by J. Ajithkumar
Terrible Temblors by VK Joshi
Heavy Metals in Ayurveda by Dr. Dheeraj
Malhotra, MD
Cord Blood: Biological Insurance? by Usha Raman
Tales Child Brides Tell by Nilanjana Bhowmick
Back to Farming Basics by Neeta Lal
Youth Leaders Want a Place at the Table by
Nitin Jugran Bahuguna
The Indian Legacy by Arvind Pandey
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