Political Diary
New
Delhi, 20 August 2019
Monsoon Mahyem
WARNED YET UNPREPARED
By Poonam I Kaushish
When it rains, it
pours. And how! As annual rains shower a catastrophic effect across many States,
they resemble
disaster zones as floods
erase villages, sluice roads, damage
crops, sweep bodies, cripple train services, shut down
airports, wreck economy bringing everything to a grinding halt. Promising more misery, more
wrenching news bulletins and more cries for the Government to act as over 370
people have been killed, over one million displaced and thousands of homes inundated
across six States.
Succinctly,
disaster management is a disaster
Southern Kerala and Karnataka alongside Western Maharashtra and
Gujarat are the hardest hit with over 190,000 people
living in relief camps in Kerala alone. In Karnataka nearly 700,000 have been
evacuated and World Heritage Site Hampi is flooded. In Madhya Pradesh heavy
rains killed 52 people and 69 in Gujarat and damaged crops. Worse, floods have washed
away thousands of hectares of summer-sown crops, wrecked roads and rail lines
causing widespread destruction.
Undeniably,
the Government’s approach is one of criminal casualness --- kaam chalao! Like always it dishes
out more of the same: deploy army, navy and air force to work with local
emergency personnel for search, rescue and relief operations, financial aid of
up to Rs 10,000 each to all calamity-hit families, flood compensation etc.
Less
said the better of the shoddy unpreparedness among our civic authorities during
monsoons which aggravates the problem: Insufficient cleaning of drains,
inadequate pruning of over-burdened trees, dug up roads, no de-silting et al. The infrastructure is incapable of
handling the first downpour, let alone what follows. It only reacts after things
come to a grinding halt or people have lost their lives.
While the severity of the rains
can be termed as an ‘act of God’, the mess, misery and damage is certainly
man-made and mostly caused by human error. The worst thing is nobody seems to care as ‘feel-good’
has become the holy grail of the Establishment. It’s almost a national
conspiracy, let’s ignore the warts and bad things, focus only on glitzy
speeches and idolise success.
Alas, instead of finding a
durable and sustainable solution to the problem, the Centre has taken recourse
to short-cuts and quick-fix remedies which have compounded the mess. Primarily,
because our policies are based on poor land management and myopic flood-control
strategies. In fact, a cursory glance at the Parliamentary Standing Committee
Report on Disaster Management shows that over 67.4 per cent area of the country
is vulnerable to natural disasters like floods, cyclonic winds and storms. Yet
the Government’s response is ke pharak
painda hai.
Moreover,
the authorities wake up to problems only when it stares them in the face. Questionably,
why is India so underprepared? Why are long-term responses
not developed to what is an annual expected problem? Do we know the ABC of
disaster management? Why do
politicians feel that mere sanctioning of hundreds of crores will solve the
problem?
Little do
they realize that funds doled out instead of helping people are used by most
State Governments for everything other than disaster management. Unfortunately,
many civic officials spend years lining their pockets instead of taking care of
civic facilities. Scandalously, roads are dug up to ostensibly lay pipes in the
rain!
Thereby, exposing the country's
poor disaster control. Bluntly, neither the Central Disaster Management
Authority nor the State Disaster Boards implemented any project properly. Shockingly,
according to a 2017 CAG report of 517 works approved between 2007-16, only 57%
were completed as release of funds was delayed or there were delays in
submitting project proposals and shortfall of sanctioned funds.
In addition, in some cases
funds were diverted towards works that were not approved. For example, in
Assam, Himachal and Tamil Nadu alone, Rs.36.50 crores was diverted towards
works not approved. In Bihar of 24 projects 10 were delayed by 10-75 months.
Besides, as the river topography constantly changed, uncompleted projects became
redundant and it was found that project objectives were not met due to
inadequate planning.
More striking is that majority
of dams lack Emergency Action Plans and developers did not account for
prevention of backflow of a river, “non-establishment of embankment near the
sluice gate of rivers” like bank protection along Bhagirathi river in West
Bengal and errors in the benefit-cost ratio.
Think.
The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) was set-up amidst much
fanfare with an ambitious three-layer (national, State and district) plan to
decentralise disaster management right up to district levels and guidelines and
policies were drawn to that effect. On paper: Good. On ground: Dud.
The CAG report 2015 submitted the
NDMA had neither information nor control over the progress of disaster
management work in State or could it successfully implement various projects it
had initiated for disaster preparedness and mitigation. What’s more, the authority
has been functioning without its core advisory committee of experts that
advises it on different aspects of disaster management for the past three
years.
Asserted a senior NDMA
official, “The NDMA was bound to fail, as we were always a top-heavy organisation
with many having no expertise in the realm of disaster. Worse, it is not
performing several functions prescribed in the Disaster Management Act, 2005.
No long-term responses have been developed, as it is assumed that by sanctions
monies their job is done.” Who will be held accountable? Whose head will roll?
Woefully, there are no
emergency operations centres or trained personnel to search and rescue people.
Shockingly, this is not due to lack of money, since 2010 till date the Central
Government has budgeted over $5 billion to prepare for disasters with the
Centre contributing 75%. Consequently, the deluge promises more wretchedness
and anguish.
There
is lack of know-how for assessing risks at local level, poor enforcement of
regulations, inadequate risk mitigation, no flood-risk mapping and flood
forecasting network, failure towards climate change mitigation and adaptation,
inadequate training at ground level totals disaster in mitigating losses.
What now? Time the Government
stop behaving like an ostrich with its head buried in the sand and introduces
better flood warning systems. First, educate public to modify homes and
businesses to withstand floods, construct buildings above flood levels, tackle
climate change, protect wetlands, plant trees, restore rivers to their natural
courses, introduce water storage areas and increase spending on flood defences.
Two,
reforestation should be undertaken on a war footing as forests soak up excess
rainwater, prevent run-offs and damage from flooding. Alongside construct
levees, dams, reservoirs and channels to divert floodwater, called floodways. Three,
transit quickly to preparedness-centric approach instead of continuing to be
relief-centric and better flood forecasting policy. One way is to evacuate
people in safe structures on firm ground, not flood plains.
States
need to build regional mutual-aid centres with quick response teams as it is wasteful
for each State to build parallel inventories, forecasting systems and teams. Alongside,
flood destruction could be minimized if forecasting and mapping is accurate. A
word of caution: Climate change complicates this as places which did not
previously suffer floods are now experiencing unprecedented levels of rainfall.
Certainly,
Modi’s response has been muscular till date, undertaking aerial surveys of
affected districts and earmarking monies from the Prime Minister’s Relief Fund.
But this is not enough. Desperate situations demand desperate action. The time
is far gone to play the pied piper and aver this is life, stupid! ---- INFA
(Copyright, India News & Feature Alliance)
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