‘Nature, disasters have no borders’
NEW DELHI: Natural disasters are becoming more frequent and severe, and need to be addressed with increased funding in disaster resilient infrastructure, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Wednesday.
Highlighting the human impact of these disasters, the PM, in a video message at the Sixth International Conference on Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (ICDRI) 2024, said, “We have witnessed natural disasters are becoming more frequent and more severe. The damage or the cost is usually reported in dollars but true impact on people, families and communities is beyond numbers.”
Earthquakes damage houses rendering thousands homeless, disasters disrupt water and sewage systems putting the health of people at risk, disasters can impact energy plants creating potentially dangerous situations, the PM said.
“These things have a human impact,” he said, as he called on countries to invest in disaster resilient infrastructure.
“After a disaster, the immediate focus is naturally on relief and rehabilitation. But after the initial response, our focus should be on resilient infrastructure. Nature and disasters have no borders. In a highly interconnected world, disasters can have a very widespread impact. The world can be resilient collectively when countries are resilient individually,” Modi said.
The PM’s comments came a day after the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) flagged that Asia remained the continent worst hit by weather, climate and water-related hazards in 2023.
While the report did not rank countries within the region, it listed several extreme weather events — heatwaves, floods, and a glacial lake outburst flood (GLOF) — that devastated parts of India last year, to highlight how the country was affected by these. While floods and storms caused the highest number of reported casualties and economic losses, the impact of heatwaves became more severe in 2023, according to a new WMO report titled: The State of the Climate in Asia 2023.
Referring to the Small Island Developing States at high risk of disasters, PM Modi mentioned a CDRI program for funding projects across 13 such places. He gave examples of resilient housing in Dominica, transport networks in Papua New Guinea, and enhanced early warning systems in the Dominican Republic and Fiji.
He further urged countries to support the most vulnerable like the small island nations. “CDRI’s focus is on global south. During our G20 Presidency, disaster risk reduction working group was formed with financing at the heart of discussions,” he said.