NEW DELHI: Inaugurating the three-day Asian Ministerial Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction (AMCDRR) here, Prime Minister Narendra Modi underscored the need for involvement of women volunteers and greater international cooperation in disaster response.
The PM also emphasised on working towards risk coverage for all stakeholders, from poor households to small and medium enterprises and multi-national corporations to nation states.
All development sectors must imbibe the principles of disaster risk management and encourage involvement and leadership of women as they are the most hit during any disaster, he said.
"Women are disproportionately affected by disasters. They also have unique strengths and insights. We must train a large number of women volunteers to support special needs of women affected by disasters. We need women engineers, masons and building artisans supporting reconstruction, and women self-help groups assisting livelihood recovery," he said.
Emphasising the need to develop disaster mitigation capacities at the local level, the PM said there should be investment in risk mapping globally, leveraging of technology to enhance the
efficiency of the disaster risk management efforts and utilising the opportunities provided by social media and mobile technologies.
Modi said a fully functional Indian Ocean Tsunami Warning System has become operational and along with its Australian and Indonesian counterparts, the Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services is mandated to issue regional tsunami bulletins.
"The same goes for improvements in cyclone early warning. In India, if we compare the impact of cyclone events in 1999 and 2013, we can see the progress we have made.... It led to a significant reduction in loss of lives from cyclones. It is now recognised as a global best practice," he said.
Modi said there are daunting challenges ahead as the Asia-Pacific region is rapidly urbanising. "Urbanisation will pose greater challenges for disaster risk management by concentrating people, property and economic activity in smaller areas, many of them in disaster-prone locations. If we do not manage this growth, in terms of both planning and execution, the risk of economic and human losses from disasters will be higher than ever before," he added.
In his address Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh echoed Modi’s sentiments saying Asian region is specially vulnerable to disasters, both natural and man-made, which are occurring with increased frequency and intensity.
Eight of the ten disasters in the world occur in Asia, making two-thirds of the world's population vulnerable, Singh added.