Monsoon: time to be alert on CI

The monsoon is of paramount importance to India. Directly or indirectly, monsoon influences every Indian and every sector. It enables our agriculture to provide purchasing power to the vast sections across the country. It results in promotion of trade and commerce, provides inputs to industry. Importantly, monsoon helps to ensure food security to the country. Thus, the monsoon reaching the Kerala coast in full vigour is a welcome annual event. It heralds the beginning of a new hydrological year.

On the other hand, inadequate preparation, shortcoming or failure in the functioning of Critical Infrastructure (CI), may result in havoc, causing loss of lives and economic assets. For instance, for a while, Cyclone Vayu, off the west coast, threatened to cause heavy damage in Gujarat. As a precautionary measure, the state government evacuated thousands of people from vulnerable areas to safer places. Fortunately, Cyclone Vayu has changed its trajectory and its impact on the coast of Gujarat is much less than feared.

The ability to evacuate people and also to provide them proper care in shelters requires creation of significant physical infrastructure and building up the capacity of personnel involved in disaster management. Most states in the country have made significant progress in these aspects, made possible by a paradigm shift that India has adopted for disaster management.

Disaster management in India has gone through that shift after India became a signatory to the ‘Hyogo Framework for Action’ in 2005. The focus of disaster management has moved from its earlier ‘relief-based’ approach to ‘preventive approach’.

Accordingly, a central legislation — the National Disaster Management Act — was enacted in 2005 to address the entire gamut of disaster management. This act envisages the district as the basic unit for disaster management. It empowers the district administration to develop a District Disaster Management Plan (DDMP) for that district.

The template for DDMP, developed by the National Institute of Disaster Management (NIDM), distinguishes two stages of disaster management (during, pre- and post-incidence) with four phases, namely: 1) Mitigation measures to reduce the adverse impacts of disasters; 2) Preparedness measures; 3) Response for undertaking quick rescue and provide efficient relief, and 4) Recovery, helping the affected community to get back to normal as soon as possible. Hence, the onus of preparing an implementable and effective disaster management plan lies with the respective district administration.

Karnataka is vulnerable to various disasters such as floods, landslides, cyclones and damage due to drought as a consequence of varying monsoon behaviour — heavy rainfall may induce landslides (in hilly regions like Kodagu), or floods in other parts of the state (Dakshina Kannada, Vijayapura, Raichur, Kodagu), cyclone threat in coastal districts (Dakshina Kannada, Uttara Kannada and Udupi). Over the years, the administration, both at state and district levels, has evolved reasonably effective processes and mechanisms to undertake rescue and provide relief to affected communities.

However, recent disasters, both man-made and natural, in Kodagu, Dharwad, Kanaganamaradi, Sulawadi, Bagalakote provide evidence to the increasing vulnerability of the state to unexpected disasters due to frequently occurring drought and flood.

Floods, by nature, occur rapidly and leave little time for a vulnerable community to prepare itself. Hence, the district administration could and should focus on smooth functioning of Critical Infrastructure for ensuring efficient rescue and relief measures if the need arises. Though there is no universal definition of CI, it is critical to the functioning of societies.

Broadly, all facilities/systems/organisations that have an essential meaning for the functioning of societies can be grouped into Critical Infrastructure and their breakdown/failure could cause significant disruption in societies. For instance, electricity, means of transportation for essential supplies like drinking water, medicines, communications etc, in the disaster-affected areas. Any failure or disruption in the functioning of Critical Infrastructure could have far reaching implications. That’s why 25 targets mentioned in the UN Sustainable Development Goals are related to disaster risk reduction.

In the current institutional arrangement, the ‘Calamity Section’ of the Deputy Commissioner’s office is the focal point for disaster management at the district level. This section has a good understanding of the vulnerability of the district to various hazards and is capable of identifying vulnerable CI in the district. In view of urgency, the Calamity Section in ewvery district should include civil society and should take measures to reduce the vulnerability of CI, so as to avoid the repetition of Kodagu-like situations or the urban floods in Bengaluru.

In addition, the Karnataka State Natural Disaster Monitoring Centre (KSNDMC) has established a high-density network of monitoring stations, both spatial and temporal, across the state with a monitoring station in every gram panchayat.

With its weather forecasting system and early warning alerts, the centre offers an advantage that can be harnessed by the Calamity Sections at the district level to ensure efficient functioning of CI and reduce disaster risk and vulnerability to monsoon-related disasters.

(The writer is with KSNDMC)