A two-day regional conference on Chemical Industrial Disaster Management (CIDM) began here on Thursday.
Inaugurating the conference attended by experts from petroleum and natural gas sector and Government officials from Odisha, Kolkata, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh, Odisha Steel and Mines Minister Prafulla Kumar Mallick laid emphasis on the need for an effective disaster management strategy to reduce the impact of disaster.
“There are more than 1,800 MAH units and other small and medium-scale industries all across the nation and new industries are also establishing at a rapid rate. Rapid industrialisation has increased the hazard, risk and vulnerability to the industry and the environment. Major chemical (industrial) disasters are low in frequency but are very significant in the terms of loss of lives, injuries, environmental impact and property damage,” observed Mallick.
He also highlighted the Bhopal gas disaster 1984 which left thousands of people killed after a highly toxic vapour (methyl-isocyanate) released from Union Carbide pesticides factory.
The conference’s theme “Disaster Risk Reduction in Chemical, Metallurgical, Gas and other Industries” focuses to make industries globally safe by better emergency planning for accidents both for onsite and offsite situations including isolated and special emphasis on accidents due to chemicals and providing opportunity of hands-on training and capacity development to responders during emergency.