Economic Highlights

New Delhi, 6 November 2009

Man-Made Disasters

TAKE PRECUTIONS, SAVE A FORTUNE

By Shivaji Sarkar

Fast growing nations end up fast with disasters. About $2 billion a year is lost globally due to disasters, many of which are preventable, according to the United Nations. China has lost about a thousand workers in coal mine accidents and a billion dollars in a year. In the three major fires since 2000, Rajasthan has lost over Rs 1000 crore and many lives. 

The loss in the Krishna and Tungabhadra floods in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka respectively reportedly caused less by natural phenomenon and more by interest in the realtor sector, was claimed by the two States as around Rs 28,500 crore.

The Jaipur oil depot fire has exposed, what Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) Secretary General, Amit Mitra, says: that in the yearning for growth, corporates often ignore the safety and security aspects. The Jaipur incident is a stark instance of how safety aspects were reportedly almost completely ignored by the public sector Indian Oil. Not much seems to have been learnt from the ammunition depot inferno at Bharatpur in 2000 and another fire at Bharatpur army range in 2001.

That fire is a major hazard should always be anticipated and arrangements should be in place to nip it as soon as it starts. The negligence has cost the nation at least 13 lives and Rs 300 crore - Rs 150 crore in the losses in petroleum products and another Rs 150 crore in the infrastructure.

This estimate does not include the losses in the adjoining industries in the Sitapur area, the livelihood losses to daily wagers and closure of schools, institutions and other facilities in Jaipur city. It also does not include the additional expenditure thrust on the State government to fight the disaster, evacuation of 5 lakh people and losses caused to individuals and industries elsewhere in the State owing to stoppage of supplies. This apart, it has not taken into account the cost of rebuilding the infrastructure, the severe damage to ecology and the health problems caused to the people. Moreover, the estimates often are not accurate because many losses are not quantifiable and others may come to light gradually.

As for the world, China is stated to have the worst industrial safety and disaster management system. This is not to say that the US or Europe is insulated. Had that been so Three-Mile Island in the US or Chernobyl disasters in Russia would never have happened.

Sadly, India does not have the best records in industrial safety. At many smaller units virtually no record is maintained of the disasters and neither is workers covered by the Employees State Insurance Scheme. Even data of some of the industrial townships are not properly compiled. According to a study by S Sunder and R Bharat conducted at the department of burns and plastic surgery at Tata Main Hospital in Jamshedpur, 815 industrial burn cases were reported in three years between 1993 and 1996. Such kind of compilations are not normally available as these accidents are not considered serious and often not given due attention.

Currently, there are over 1949 Major Accident Hazards (MAH) units in India besides other small and medium–sized industries, in huge numbers, all across the nation and new industries are also coming up at a rapid rate, according to National Institute of Disaster Management (NIDM).

Chemical accidents occur due to lack of safety measure, technical failures, a human error or negligence or another disaster of natural origin like flooding, landslide, earthquake, etc. The main reason is that most units do not make preventive safety arrangements. Law enforcement is weak and often is interrupted by political leaders or corrupt mechanism.

Even PSUs seem to compromise on design and safety aspects. As per norms between two storage containers a stipulated gap is supposed to be maintained, which at times is blatantly ignored. Had it adhered to this, the fire in Jaipur depot could have been contained, and a large part of the stock would not have been lost.

The release of hazardous material may occur in case of an accident during manufacture, storage, handling, transport, use or disposal stage of its life-cycle. Besides these accidents, there were several instances of chemical disasters occurred due to failures of tailing dams, dykes, ash-ponds, hazardous waste facilities, mass contamination, etc. in manufacturing, electronic, metallurgical and other industries.

Serious disaster risks are involved in water resource engineering projects including hydro-power plants. Mining industry is the one known for its hazard potentials whether during mining operations (underground or surface), transport, ore/mineral processing, transport, storage, etc. which are often in the form of fire, gas toxicity, explosion, flooding, subsidence, etc.

Even many natural disasters, including floods often occur due to mismanagement or lack of management and maintenance of the man-made sites. The recent Kosi floods were a blatant instance of it. Water flow at different time changes and dams and its embankments are supposed to be built according to the worst case scenario. The Kosi had it but nobody cared to maintain it for years and rodents had eaten into the structures, which were not repaired.

More recent Andhra and Karnataka floods would not have been so disastrous had the sluice gates of various reservoirs opened on time. While it cost the former Rs 16,500 crore, Karnataka quoted a figure of Rs 12,000 crore. But again it does not include the cost of hardships caused to individuals.

In per its estimates, the UN says that 33 per cent of GDP is lost to floods and two per cent of the world GDP is lost to other disasters. Its figures for India are not different. Clearly, the authorities are not oblivious to the problems. In 2005, the Disaster Management Act was enacted. In 2007, a National Guidelines on Chemical Disaster Management has been released by National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA).  

A holistic disaster management framework recently noticed a wide gap between the identification and implementation of disaster management systems at planning and functional levels. This is exactly the diagnosis of the Jaipur fire as well. The NDMA has an onerous objective but the experts are not hopeful that they would be able to implement the steps as the bureaucracy finds the expert suggestions “expensive and cumbersome”, according to Dr AS Arya, professor Emeritus of Roorkee University, an expert on the issue. India at best can see repetition of the Jaipur tragedy and should be prepared to millions going up in flames. Its development goals do not match its disaster management objectives. ---INFA

 
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