A fascinating sight is that of a waterfall gushing down from a mountain, a river meandering gently, a lake full of fresh water or even rainwater flowing down the street instead of traffic for a change.
But water can be a potent danger as we recently saw in the case of Uttarakhand. This year’s tragedy struck the State, which was unable to withstand the fury of gushing water, and resulted in landslides that caused death and destruction.
The word disaster is derived from ‘dis astro’ meaning an ill-starred event. Disasters have been mankind’s constant companion from time immemorial. The decade 1990 to 2000 was observed as International Decade for Natural Disasters and was dedicated to promoting solutions to mitigate risk in the event of natural disasters. But ironically that was the decade which witnessed the maximum disasters both natural and man-made.
A disaster is a high impact phenomenon which has the potential to wipe out years of development in a matter of hours. Can disasters be prevented? Natural disasters like cyclones, tornados, earthquakes and storms cannot be prevented completely but their impact can be considerably reduced. Passive fatalism to nature’s fury should give way to systematic planning and it is high time we realised the need for well directed efforts to tackle a natural disaster.
In 1999, a 31-member committee headed by retired civil servant JC Pant was set up to provide a framework for disaster management. The committee identified 31 types of disaster under five major categories namely 1) Water and climate related 2) Geological 3) Chemical, industrial and nuclear 4) Accident-related and 5) Biological.
Major recommendations of the committee were setting up a National Council for Disaster Management, National Institute for Disaster Management with an emergency operation centre, drafting national and state laws for disaster management and stringent enforcement of existing regulations, reconstituting calamity relief fund and earmarking at least 10 per cent of plan funds at all levels to address prevention, reduction, preparedness and mitigation of disasters.
To meet any disaster a culture of preparedness has to be evolved and risk assessment has to be prepared. Human resources should be developed and trained and standard operating procedures drawn.
Even though our country has 7,600 kilometres of coastline, when the tsunami struck in 2004 we were most unprepared, which took a heavy toll and thousands of lives were lost.
Now the Uttarakhand disaster has caused havoc, the State government has stated that approximately 80,000 people have been evacuated. Many are still stranded and evacuation is in full swing.
On our part let us respect nature, preserve the ecosystem and prepare an action plan to meet any emergency. A disaster, big or small, can happen any time, be it at home, office or an institution. It is essential that an emergency response plan is drawn up so that each one can take precautions to handle the disaster.
