bridges by suitably modifying the
scheme. The Indira Awas Yojana
(IAY) provides housing for the
poor. Normally the Ministry
earmarks a small percentage of
funds for quick construction of
houses to those affected by natural
disasters. However the design and
cost norms of the housing schemes
do not permit addition of disaster
resistant elements. A change in
design norms to accommodate the
need for strengthening the house
vis-à-vis the vulnerability of the
region needs to be introduced in the
12th Five Year Plan proposals. So
is the case with Rajiv Awas Yojana
(RAY).
The Jawaharlal Nehru
National Urban Renewal
Mission (JNNURM) provides for
strengthening infrastructure in
selected large cities in the country.
While this has contributed to
a remarkable improvement in
urban infrastructure, attention to
vulnerabilities and strategy for
disaster management in the city
development/master plans has been
lacking. Given the fact that urban
population in India is growing at
a rapid pace and natural hazards
in densely populated regions can
increase vulnerability and economic
losses and more attention to disaster
reduction needs to be given in the
planning and implementation of the
urban development projects.
The Rajiv Gandhi National
D r i n k i n g Wa t e r M i s s i o n
(RGNDWM) provides safe and
potable water to all the villages.
In the event of a natural disaster,
availability of drinking water and
food demand immediate attention.
The Department has earmarked a
YOJANA March 2012
certain percentage in their outlay
for sinking emergency tube-wells in
the event of a disaster. While this
is a welcome step, more thought
needs to be given to the design,
construction and location of the
drinking water sources particularly
in low lying flood prone areas. It
would be worthwhile to construct
these tube-wells on higher platforms
in low lying and flood prone areas
so that in the monsoon season and
in the event of floods, these do
not go under water and become
unusable.
Similarly the health sector
has a flagship programme called
National Rural Health Mission.
While our experience in handling
epidemics and pandemics has
been good, areas like hospital
safety, surveillance mechanism for
infectious diseases, trauma care,
management of mass causalities,
etc., need more attention.
Disaster Risk Reduction needs
to be included in the curricula in
Schools and Colleges to inculcate
the culture of safety and prevention
among the children. In addition, a
thorough review of the safety of
the School buildings needs to be
undertaken. To ensure safety of
all the Schools in the country, a
legislative framework will have to
be set up. There is also a shortage
of qualified professionals in many
areas related to DRR. This needs
to be addressed on priority.
Setting up of suitable early
warning systems is probably the
best intervention which can be
made in the next five years. While
we have substantially stepped
up our capabilities for Tsunami
warning the same cannot be said
for other efforts. Systems for
weather forecasting, though have
improved substantially over the
last five years, still needs higher
investments, equipments and man
power. It should be possible to
warn communities in any part of
the country about extreme weather
conditions substantially well in
advance to enable them to save
the lives and property. Satellite
imagery has become an important
tool for decision makers in getting
alerts for disasters and in assessing
the situation pre and post disaster.
These capabilities need further
refinement and intensification
to enable functionaries at the
district level to take appropriate
and timely decisions. Therefore,
the three departments viz., Science
& Technology, Earth Sciences
and Space and the organisations
under them viz., IMD, INCOIS,
NRSC, and SOI need to step up
their investments in equipments
and human capabilities to provide
advance and effective information
on disasters. These have to be
supported by other scientific
departments and organisations
like ICAR, ICMR, CWC, GSI,
etc. It is also necessary to create
a national platform for sharing,
using and disseminating the data.
(for example the data on heavy
rainfall needs to be combined
with the data on river flows to
develop flood inundation models
and early warning systems. This
could be supplemented by satellite
imagery).
Lack of awareness about
many things that the Community
does or does not do has also
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