CEDM envisages safe urban habitats for all

Vadodara Regional Centre of All India Institute of Local Self-Government established the Centre for Environment and Disaster Management (CEDM) as a separate wing to espouse the causes of Environment and Disaster related issues immediately after the devastating earthquake in the Kutch and other parts of the State of Gujarat in the year 2001

Hansa Patel

Executive Adviser

As the Vadodara Centre was already engaged in Fire and Safety training programs and assisting the industrial units and local bodies to get their concerned personnel trained in fire prevention, fire protection and firefighting aspects at National Fire Academy, it was thought apt to contribute and assist the attempts of newly constituted body of Gujarat State Disaster Management Authority in mitigating the impacts of disasters.

Further, the tragic after effects of the disastrous earthquake and the miseries of people prompted the Centre to approach the Gujarat State Disaster Management Authority to direct the local bodies to depute the personnel working in their Fire & Emergency Services to attend the short term training programs tailored by the CDEM to mitigate and minimize the impacts of disasters and manage the manmade and natural disasters with better skills and awareness. The existing tieups of the Institute with Netherlands encouraged CEDM to approach them for their support and cooperation in providing the fire officers of various municipal corporations in the State of Gujarat to updated training programs in disaster management. Of focus would be the use of latest equipment in saving the lives of people buried under debris and removing obstructions for easy movement of men and machines in the affected areas. After the short term training programs, the fire officers returned with renewed confidence to tackle various challenges to save the lives of people with better knowledge, skills and efficiency. After their return from Netherlands, the Vadodara Centre could organize workshops and seminars meant for the local body personnel and the concerned personnel of industries to share their knowledge and experience and the infrastructure requirements needed to manage the disasters and to evacuate people to safety.

Even after normalcy was established, CEDM took up various training programs related with fire and safety including the components of disaster management jointly with National Fire Academy for the concerned personnel of industrial units ranging from small scale industries to medium scale and large scale sectors of private and public sector in the State of Gujarat. The current global COVID-19 pandemic has also become a health disaster and almost all countries are struggling to cope up with the emerging issues and to save the lives of people. The fire disasters in COVID wards of some hospitals in our country, including in the Intensive Care Units (ICUs) has been a matter of great concern and pain to all. All concerned swung into action to investigate these cases, find out the root causes and fix them immediately to prevent any recurrence of such incidents.

CEDM is also planning to conduct training programs for the hospital staff to create awareness about the causes of fires, their prevention, and the necessary actions required in case of any sudden fire incident to evacuate the patients to safer places and to secure fire-fighting services.

Such programs are proposed to be conducted in collaboration with the Fire & Emergency Services, to secure better response and effective remedial actions. CEDM will also create awareness of the possible reasons for such fires, study specific cases to find out causes and suggest remedial actions and preventive measures to be implemented by the hospital administrations.

Tie-up with SMC

CEDM recently tied up with the Surat Municipal Corporation (SMC) to train about 900 of their fire marshals including watch and ward staff. These programmes were well appreciated as adding to the capability of the

This picture is for representation purpose only

concerned personnel.

The approval of Directorate of Industrial Safety and Health, Government of Gujarat to National Fire Academy, Vadodara enabled take up the training programs for large scale industries. This needed more infrastructure and larger training ground to conduct mock drills and live fire-fighting demonstrations. Therefore, with necessary planning and inputs from technical experts, the Institute acquired a large piece of land at a prime location close to Vadodara City to set up an ultra-modern training and study center to enable us to take up training and consultancy programs on a larger scale in the areas of fire, safety and disaster management. The construction of the facility is in progress and is likely to be ready for use in about two years’ time.

In addition to the above activities, CEDM is also working actively in the area of environment protection. The Centre has chalked out various programmes to create awareness and to promote sustainable actions with respect to environment protection including afforestation, sustainable agriculture and waste management, among others. There is also an urgent need to address issues of vehicular emissions in our cities given the severe threats of global warming and climate change disasters. CEDM is now increasing its activities to address these concerns too.

CEDM is also encouraging the community for tree plantation and organizing seminars and workshops on various environmental issues with the help of other similar voluntary organizations and NGOs working in the field.