October 13 is the International Day for Disaster Reduction and this year’s theme is ‘Knowledge for life’. October is the month known for autumn and festivals. However, the month is also reminiscent of the cyclones that hit Odisha in close succession. The Super Cyclone hit the State on October 29, 1999, Phailin on October 12, 2013 and Hudhud on October 12, 2014. Therefore Odisha has reasons to be better prepared for October.
Odisha evolved its own model of disaster preparedness after the colossal sufferings it had to undergo during and after the Super Cyclone in 1999. It developed a robust mechanism to tackle natural disaster by a multi-prong approach. The results spoke for themselves when the State faced Phailin in 2013 and Hudhud in 2014.
Phailin hit Odisha coast at a time when the world was in search of a success story after the failure of disaster management system in Kedarnath, Uttarakhand and Philippines (Haiyan typhoon) that took away many lives. Odisha had a zero casualty mission and with help of various stakeholders, the Government very effectively tackled Phailin and won accolades for it.
It is estimated that 80 per cent of the world’s largest cities are currently vulnerable to severe impacts from earthquakes and 60 per cent are at risk from storm surges and tsunamis, making sustainable urbanization a key element of disaster risk preparedness as most of the leading cities are around sea coasts.
This reminds of the morning of January 1995, when city of Kobe, Japan, shook for less than a minute. By the time the tremors subsided, one of the most powerful earthquakes, had already destroyed bridges, expressways and buildings, and within several hours, claimed over 6,400 lives. The quake’s magnitude and the fact that it occurred in close proximity to a highly populous urban center was a deadly cocktail. Kobe was a trigger point for international community on responding to disaster reduction by investing much on preparedness.
However, despite all warning and technology, world's majority of cities including of India are not safe due to poor governance, accountability, transparency that left urban planning just a production house of colourful maps. The world is continuously witnessing major disasters, be it in Kathmandu or Indonesia or China or South Asia. However, cities those have given seriousness to disaster resilient planning have successfully overcome the disasters.
Twenty years after the Kobe disaster, the international community met in Sendai, a region that has witnessed disasters including Kobe and, more recently, the Fukushima earthquake-nuclear catastrophe, whose after-effects continue to this day. At the third World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction (WCDRR), the world leaders deliberated on the new intergovernmental framework for disaster risk reduction for the next decade and a new roadmap for building resilience called Sendai Framework. It is adopted by members of the United Nations that includes India.
The Sendai Framework is a 15-year international roadmap for curbing disaster mortality and economic losses. It was adopted earlier this year in March at the 3rd UN World Conference for Disaster Risk Reduction. Conference participants also agreed to extend MCR to 2020 and increase its awareness-raising and implementation activities significantly. Coincidentally with the adoption of the Sendai Framework, local Governments have become even more at the centre of the efforts for building resilience to disasters. As city resilience is extremely linked to city competitiveness, the cities that plan are able to become more competent than the others.
The core of making cities resilient is self-assessment of risk according to a series of benchmarks. They include city’s budget, how critical infrastructure is handled, policies to ensure all members of the community are included in risk planning, the safety of schools and health facilities, risk-compliant building regulations and land use, protection of ecosystems, and early warning systems.
(Dr Rout is an urban planner and co founder of local Governance Network. He can be reached at piyush.rout@lgnet.in)