The Hindu Business Line : Lessons in disaster management

AFTER an initial bout of confused debility and slackness, the Kerala Government seems to have recovered enough of its wits and begin offering succour to the hundreds of fishing communities along the State's coast affected by the earthquake-triggered tsunami on December 26.

More encouraging, perhaps, is the Government's newfound commitment to disaster management.

A disaster is, of course, an unforeseen and often sudden event that causes great damage, destruction and human suffering. In this case, the culprit was a tsunami - a seismic sea wave that is potentially the most catastrophic of all ocean waves. The resulting waves had a devastating impact on the low-lying coastal areas, as fishing villages in selected areas of the southern parts of Kerala's shores found out to their utter misfortune.

The post-Christmas tsunami was clearly a case of total surprise and the Government's lack of preparedness can be understood - even expected, given past performance - but certainly not condoned.

The Government has since established that fishing craft estimated to cost more than Rs 100 crore had been destroyed by tsunami in Kerala. According to the memorandum submitted by the State to the Centre, 10,882 fishing craft of different types have been destroyed or damaged by the killer waves. This figure constituted nearly 18 per cent of the fishing craft that were operating in the State.

Even as the Kerala Government ramps up its relief and rehabilitation efforts, the Education Minister, Mr E.T. Muhammad Basheer, recently announced that the Government would seriously think of introducing disaster management as a subject in the State's colleges. Earlier, the Chief Minister, Mr Oommen Chandy, had announced the Government's decision to constitute a separate department for disaster management to speed up rehabilitation of the tsunami victims in the State.

All these brave and hopeful initiatives are, of course, post factum. But what is needed now is a policy of preparedness, for Kerala has proven to be no haven from natural disasters, be they a landslide, a flood or a tsunami.

The Kerala Government now needs to concentrate on mitigation, the process of preventing disasters or reducing related hazards. According to experts, methods of limiting damage can be as simple as placing a fuse box higher on a wall in a flood-prone area, or as costly as strengthening a building's structure to withstand an earthquake.

The American Red Cross' mitigation efforts include brochures and training videos, local presentations to raise awareness of mitigation, and serving on committees and task forces that coordinate mitigation programs.

In this connection, the Kerala Government would do well to read the Asean declaration by Heads of State/Government, Special Envoys and Heads of regional as well as international organisations, who gathered in Jakarta, Indonesia on 6 January 2005 for a conference on the tsunami aftermath.

The declaration seeks to promote and encourage private sector participation in, and contribution to, the rehabilitation and reconstruction efforts. It calls on States to develop and promote national and regional human and institutional capacity, transfer know-how, technology, and scientific knowledge in building and managing a regional early warning system and disaster management through international cooperation and partnership.

Above all, the declaration calls for public education and awareness as well as community participation in disaster prevention and mitigation through, inter alia, a community-based disaster preparedness and early response.

The public-private partnership can extend to other spheres as well. In building coastal mangrove forests, which would mitigate the impacts from such catastrophic waves. Also to try and enforce the CRZ norm of having no construction within 200 metres from the coastline.

However these measures might just reduce the human suffering and loss of property, but would not be able to check the destruction from such ferocious waves in totality.

Such a community-based approach to disaster preparedness and management would go down particularly well with Kerala's populace, given their past experiences with mass public action.

The writer can be contacted at kgkumar@gmail.com

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