Lack of proper disaster management and response
Tuesday - October 17, 2017 11:51 am ,
Category : WTN SPECIAL
Lack of proper disaster management and response
India is a disaster-prone country. Her three sides are open to the battering of the seas. Her north is privy to the cold wafts from the Himalayas, while most of her land mass is on shifting and shaking tectonic plates that can topple her haphazardly built buildings in claustrophobic cities anytime. The country is interspersed with rivers from north to south, which, depending on the vagaries of a growingly erratic monsoon, decide whether to go on a flooding spate or run dry, both causing untold miseries to the people. Our denuding hills and culled forests leave us prone to landslides and forest fires.
Cyclones are becoming more frequent and more intense than ever before in recorded history even as the population vulnerable to such onslaught is multiplying in multitudes. Unbridled construction and mining activities from river banks to river beds further leave our ecosystem fragile and catastrophe-prone. But are we, a country of a billion souls, rocketing out satellites every hour into space, prepared to tackle environmental exigencies or natural disasters with élan and efficiency? If we go by our past achievements or rather non-achievements, we can comfortably say we are not yet there. Our disaster management and urgent disaster response/mitigation system have more than often collapsed at the time of any catastrophic natural hazard. They have only come to life after several lives have been lost. That has been the traditional pattern of our approach. Every time a tragedy strikes, there starts the inevitable bickering and squabbles between the multiple agencies at work as to who will do what, with everyone trying to take the credit for being the best and the promptest. In this muddle, precious time is lost and there is overlapping of duties while many spheres and aspects begging attention and immediate action remain unattended and neglected. We still don’t have a very effective and powerful nodal agency acting as an umbrella to coordinate all the operations of different agencies, unifying them for a common cause at the time of emergency.
A unified command like that of the EC or CBI is not in place for all practical purposes. Same happens when we are face to face with terror strikes. Several agencies start working from different ends and chaos ensues. A proper streamlining and channelising of the process is still a far cry. This is why, while in foreign countries even the biggest disasters lead to the minimal loss to life and property, in India, an accident of a much lesser magnitude slays off thousands in a trice. There is no clue when we will get our acts right. There is no excuse why we cannot save more lives and lessen losses in times of floods and fires, quakes and storms that the country is so regularly exposed to. There is no reason why we cannot emulate Japan or the US, brace ourselves with the best technologies and resources and take on natural calamities with exemplary fortitude.-Window To News
Cyclones are becoming more frequent and more intense than ever before in recorded history even as the population vulnerable to such onslaught is multiplying in multitudes. Unbridled construction and mining activities from river banks to river beds further leave our ecosystem fragile and catastrophe-prone. But are we, a country of a billion souls, rocketing out satellites every hour into space, prepared to tackle environmental exigencies or natural disasters with élan and efficiency? If we go by our past achievements or rather non-achievements, we can comfortably say we are not yet there. Our disaster management and urgent disaster response/mitigation system have more than often collapsed at the time of any catastrophic natural hazard. They have only come to life after several lives have been lost. That has been the traditional pattern of our approach. Every time a tragedy strikes, there starts the inevitable bickering and squabbles between the multiple agencies at work as to who will do what, with everyone trying to take the credit for being the best and the promptest. In this muddle, precious time is lost and there is overlapping of duties while many spheres and aspects begging attention and immediate action remain unattended and neglected. We still don’t have a very effective and powerful nodal agency acting as an umbrella to coordinate all the operations of different agencies, unifying them for a common cause at the time of emergency.
A unified command like that of the EC or CBI is not in place for all practical purposes. Same happens when we are face to face with terror strikes. Several agencies start working from different ends and chaos ensues. A proper streamlining and channelising of the process is still a far cry. This is why, while in foreign countries even the biggest disasters lead to the minimal loss to life and property, in India, an accident of a much lesser magnitude slays off thousands in a trice. There is no clue when we will get our acts right. There is no excuse why we cannot save more lives and lessen losses in times of floods and fires, quakes and storms that the country is so regularly exposed to. There is no reason why we cannot emulate Japan or the US, brace ourselves with the best technologies and resources and take on natural calamities with exemplary fortitude.-Window To News
