Disaster risk management advocacy will save lives
It has never been more important to move from managing disasters to managing the risks which drive them
ROBERT GLASSER
Over the last 20 years, India has led the world in reducing loss of life from disasters. Learning from the 1999 super cyclone that claimed about 10,000 lives, Odisha and other states on the shores of the Bay of Bengal have avoided large-scale loss of life from major cyclonic storms.
An even greater threat to human life and critical infrastructure is posed by the fact that 59% of India’s landmass is prone to earthquakes. One of the worst such events of recent times was the Gujarat earthquake in January 2001 which took some 20,000 lives, affected 16 million people and caused damage and economic losses in the region of U$6.6 billion.
The scale of that tragedy led to the adoption by the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) of a zero tolerance approach to avoidable deaths. In a world where disasters cost the global economy $520 billion every year and push 24 million people into poverty, it has never been more important to move from managing disasters to managing the risks which drive them. These risks include poverty, bad planning, lack of building codes, destruction of protective ecosystems, climate change and population growth in disaster-prone areas.
In June 2016, the prime minister announced the adoption of India’s first national disaster management plan which is based on the priorities for action of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction: understanding disaster risk in all its dimensions, strengthening disaster risk governance, investing in disaster risk reduction and disaster preparedness, and building back better in the post-disaster reconstruction phase.
This important initiative coupled with India’s commitment to implementing the Paris Agreement on climate, has done much to raise the profile of efforts to reduce disaster losses. It has also heightened the interest of governments in collecting the necessary data on disaster losses to better inform investment decisions in resilient infrastructure. This data will also be important in establishing base lines for measuring progress on reducing disaster losses.
It is estimated that Asia will need investments to the tune of US$1.7 trillion per year between now and 2030 to maintain growth, eradicate poverty and to act on climate change.
India’s advocacy for adoption and implementation of the Sendai Framework will bear fruit in saved lives, secure livelihoods and a better quality of life for all.