E-Dialogues | Disaster Mitigation and Resilient Cities
Building Smarter Cities with resilient infrastructure National Institute of Disaster Management, in association with AIILSG, Foundation EMDA Southasia and Urban Update, organised the second edition of the training Workshop on “Building Municipalities and Citizen Awareness for Resilient India” on Friday, January 22. Anil Sinha, Former ViceChairman, Bihar State Disaster Management Authority; Dr A Sankarankutty Nair, Emeritus Scientist and Programme Director, Centre for Environment and Development; and Amit Prothi, Director, Green Infrastructure Solutions, Global Resilient Cities Network (Singapore), were part of the Workshop’s panel Team Urban Update
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isaster management is a growing challenge owing to the frequent disasters which have hit the health of the country during the COVID-19 pandemic. Disaster mitigation is needed to be incorporated in the public policies of the country and should drive infrastructure development in urban regions of the country. Urban India bears the major brunt of the burden of disaster in India and hence needs urgent attention for building disaster resilient cities. Mohanna Manna, Young Professional, NIDM, started the workshop by stating the importance of mitigating disaster risk as India has ranked third in the list of countries recording highest number of natural disasters. The risk is higher in the urban and semi-urban areas due to lack of disaster-proof infrastructure, low-level of planning and high population density. Anil Sinha, the first speaker for the Workshop, carried the discussion forward by stating the present situation of the country in handling the disaster risk due to lack of resources and a well-defined methodology. He added that the lack of empowerment and
44 February 2021 | www.urbanupdate.in
institutional reforms has been at the helm of the problems. Disasters have direct consequences on urban areas and bring various challenges with them. He added that natural disasters are not ‘natural’ in its character as they are derived from the carelessness of people where ‘overlooked’ hazards convert into disasters. He said that people are more or less responsible for all the recent occurrences of urban flooding in various parts of the country due to continuation of operation of unregulated construction sites. Definition of disaster talks about the activities which are averse to the environment, whether natural or manmade. Accidents are not seen as a part of disaster in India which is not good as the frequency of road accidents in the country is considerable to the extent that every fourth accident on the road is fatal. He also addressed the frequent man-made disasters in the times of the COVID-19 pandemic, which have been a point of concern for experts. He said, “Disasters due to fire have been the most neglected form of human disasters even when most of states in India have a separate fire act.” He also talked about the institutional structure which has been provided in the DMA, including that at central, state and local level, and said that yet, a dedicated district disaster
management plan is not in place in many places. He recommended the setting up of a Municipal Disaster Management Authority with executional powers and jurisdiction to control the disasters with a state-of-the-art database and technology. He also raised the question about the preparedness of Delhi to handle a disaster with a risk of around 10,000 causalities. He further discussed about the structures of municipal bodies and their architecture which were basically built for the purpose of revenue collection and drainage, among others, but now their scope has increased with the introduction of SDGs, the Sendai Framework, etc. He raised the question about the present situation of these local bodies considering the enlarged scope of these bodies. Talking about Smart Cities, he said that these cities should also be disaster resilient, in addition to them being smart. Dr A S Nair continued the discussion by talking about the technological methodology that can be used for assessing and mitigating the effects of a disaster. He said that there are various vulnerabilities which aid disaster risk in India such as increasing population, rapid urbanisation, increasing industrialisation, etc. He emphasized on the need to categorise the levels of disasters according to the ability of the local bodies to deal with these disasters. L1 level will deal with the disasters which can be managed at the district level whereas L2 is the level which includes disasters which need the cooperation of state governments. Lastly, L3 level disasters will include events which are too large to be handled by the state machinery and will require the assistance of the central government. He also pointed towards spatial planning and said that when a plan is formulated, it must be made sure that
