Fani: reminder for disaster readiness

“Take the baby with you,” this cry of a breastfeeding mother who has lost her house, cattle and her husband, and is unable to find a job, reflects the utter destruction Cyclone Fani has left behind in Odisha. Faced with the challenges to feed her eight-month-old baby, no protection from the sun during day and mosquitoes at night, Suchinta, 32, could only ask for people who can help to take the baby at least to a safer place.

The lifeline networks that support and sustain the society and economy of Odisha — power, transport, water, telecoms system, flood management and housing — are totally damaged. The road to recovery is not going to be easy for the state. Cyclone Fani was the strongest tropical cyclone to strike Odisha since Phailin in 2013.

However, it must be said that every natural disaster is a challenge as well as an opportunity to plan better and more efficiently. For example, while the state administration spearheaded relief operations to ensure that people had access to basic amenities, these successes were largely confined to the rural parts.

The post-disaster response in urban areas — including in Bhubaneswar — hasn’t been very good. Access to electricity and water remain out of reach in large areas. With reports of relief material not reaching the affected people in some parts of Puri and Khurdha districts, worst hit by Cyclone Fani, the state ended up receiving a notice from the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), which has asked the state chief secretary to take immediate steps to redress the grievances of the general public.

With lessons learnt from the worst disasters the state had faced in the past, like the 1999 super cyclone and Phailin, the state disaster management could have been more prepared and worked better on handling the aftermath so that affected people were not faced with food shortage. The demand for immediate supply of food and other basic materials is growing, but officials are unable to meet it.

The walls of many buildings have collapsed, leaving countless people homeless. With the green cover completely stripped off, people are finding it difficult to find shelter under the scorching sun. Electricity poles lay scattered on the streets, along with wires, roofing tiles, pieces of billboard and crumpled iron sheeting. To address this, the state could consider subterranean electric cables. In similar vein, it could also consider supporting research into developing disaster-resilient infrastructure and dynamic policy responses.

As per the government report, 1,031 public health facilities were damaged, 5,244 primary school buildings and 547 secondary school buildings were damaged. Apart from severe damage to infrastructure, the cyclone has taken its toll on livestock, with around 81, 13,266 affected. The need to invest in disaster risk reduction programmes, mainly in establishing disaster-resilient public structures like health centres and schools, will prove much more beneficial than spending money later in rebuilding.

Not just the loss to the economy, but the impact on the health of people who have to now struggle and wait for the health centres to start functioning fully will be immense, leading many to seek private services, increasing their financial burden. Ensuring disaster-resilient public structures will also mean that government can provide more shelter places for people and can even lead to covering livestock safety during disasters which will safeguard many people’s livelihoods.

Daunting task

The challenge in carrying out relief and restoration for a population of 1.5 crore people in 16,659 villages and 51 urban centres is enormous. Odisha, being one of the poorest states of India, is now forced to make difficult decisions after Cyclone Fani has destroyed people’s livelihoods and reversed hard-earned development gains, forcing more people into destitution, food insecurity, chronic poverty and, often, involuntary migration.

This then is the crux of the challenge faced by people affected by severe storms — repeated damage to property, infrastructure and green cover that need to be rebuilt and reinstated every few years. However, between the two major cyclones in 1999 and 2019, not much has been done to replant the trees that were lost earlier. Frequent disasters force the state to focus on repair, reconstruction and preparedness or on relief and rehabilitation.

Narratives of disasters tend to follow a predictable grid. They begin with a moment of scandal or crisis, move to limited period of action, and slowly fade into indifference. People get tired of consuming content on disasters and tend to move on. Policy echoes the usual clichés and fades away, only the victims — especially children and women — continue to struggle, fighting to recover.

Fani is a lasting reminder of how disaster preparedness, relief operations and climate-resilient infrastructure is needed to reduce long-term costs of redevelopment and restoration. As climate change leads to more intense and more frequent storms, floods and droughts, integrating urban and rural planning with disaster management is the only viable way for the future.

(The writer is Head-Disaster Management, World Vision India)