CHENNAI: During the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Glasgow (COP26), Prime Minister of India launched Infrastructure for Resilient Island States (IRIS) to equip Small Island Development States with necessary technical support related to infrastructure resilience in the face of climate change and other natural hazards.
Ahead of the first in-person IRIS Steering Committee meeting scheduled to the held in Chennai on the sidelines of the ongoing G20 Third Disaster Risk Reduction Working Group meeting, Director General of Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI) Amit Prothi, who is also the chairman of the steering committee, speaks to The New Indian Express about the status of the IRIS programme, India’s role, new developments shaping up in disaster risk modelling and knowledge sharing between G20 nations.
Excerpts from the interview:
The first funding cycle of IRIS was formally announced at COP27. How many proposals were received and what kind of technical support will be extended?
We received 50 proposals from 28 small island developing states. The steering committee that will be meeting later this week in Chennai will finalise 10-12 proposals. The funding for a single country project can range from $150,000 to $500,000, which depends on the quality of the proposal. After this, a second round of call for proposals will be launched during the fourth International Conference on Small Island Developing States to be held in Antigua and Barbuda in 2024. The objective is to help these island states improve their resilience of infrastructure to climate change and disaster risks. Some of the proposals received were related to developing early warning systems. These small island states are one of most vulnerable in the world and the damage potential is disproportionately higher compared to other countries.
Who are the members of the steering committee and what is the India’s role in making the island states disaster resilient?
The steering committee is headed by me. Others include representatives from Australia, UK, European Union, Mauritius, Fiji, Caribbean Development Bank, etc, and different donors. On India’s role, we will share our best practices and technological knowhow (for instance, early warning systems). The frequency of disasters is increasing, so we have to think about our own country as well as the welfare of others.
What is the Global Infrastructure Risk Model and Resilience Index (GIRI)? When will it be available to countries for taking informed decisions on policy matters?
GIRI is a first-of-its-kind initiative in the world. The model will become available for countries later this year. It is based on best science and tells future risks from six kinds of hazards such as tropical cyclones, floods, droughts, landslides, earthquakes and tsunami. Using this, countries or states can do risk profiling and know the burden on financial terms. The administrators can make an informed decision on areas where the development is feasible and where it is not. It is being developed by a consortium of scientific and technical organisations, notably the CIMA Foundation (Italy); INGENIAR Risk Intelligence (Colombia); GRID-Geneva (Switzerland) and NGI (Norway) under the management of United Nations Development Programme. The GIRI is a global public good and a fully interactive data platform that will enable users to freely access and use all the risk metrics produced.
Can you talk about Infrastructure Resilience Academic Exchange (IRAX) and the role of Indian institutions in shaping the curriculum?
IRAX is an important initiative launched to refresh the current curriculum and incorporate learning ecosystem to promote disaster and climate resilience of infrastructure. Course module outlines are being developed with IIT Bombay; Indian Institute of Human Settlements, Bengaluru and School of Planning and Architecture, Bhopal. The Statement of Intent was signed with Adaptation Research Alliance (ARA), which has a network of 180 members across 63 countries. Similar Statements of Intent are planned with universities in US, Canada and West Indies. Parallelly, dialogues are mooted with University of Mauritius, University of South Pacific and University of Samoa.
Any vulnerability studies specific to India?
We are doing several technical studies. We have done a study in Odisha, which is in final stages, looking at the power sector resilience. Studying if the transmission system, electric lines, would withstand the wind speeds in the changing cyclonic intensity and patterns. We actually issued an advisory to Gujarat government during the recent Biparjoy cyclone. We depend on coalition partners for understanding best practices and have made a compendium.
