From Being a Secondary Disaster Management Worker to Primary Disaster Affected Person

Two days ago a small rivulet flowing in front of my house swelled, turning and tossing things parked on the road adjacent to the small rivulet. Gushes of water entered a portion of my house compound. The nature’s fury hitherto watched from a distance, was in front of me for the first time. If I honestly remember, my first thoughts, it was fear and impending doom.

My family members, including my father, mother and my wife, first ensured safety of our livestock and pets, by taking them to a safe spot within the house compound. Next, it was to ensure that pathways taken by flowing water gushes are steered clear of obstruction (mostly bushes, logs and lots of waste). This challenging and threatening task was undertaken by my father (him being a retired military man became quite visible in that scenario). It takes lot of courage to venture into flooding gushes of water, i can vouch on that from first hand experience !

The swollen rivulet took its sweet 1-2 hours, creating awe and fear. In these few hours, the damage, ascertained few hours later, was mainly to public property (roads, small culverts), private vehicles (two cars and three motorbikes), one kutcha structure (shop), cultivated crops (acres of land affected is yet to be ascertained), and few lakhs worth of infrastructure material for construction (washed away ).

Above was the scenario in a two kilometer radius of area. Imagine its localized impact across vulnerable areas in the three districts of Himachal Pradesh - Kangra, Mandi and Chamba. Aside, few precious lives lost due to the landslides and vehicular accidents in the rainy weather in past few days, there has not been sizeable loss of life and livestock in the region. Much of the damage has been to public infrastructure (roads, culverts and bridges) and private property (houses, shops and vehicles).

In the aftermath, i went around, like all others in my village, to understand and look for the damage. The damage was mainly, what i have described above. But the left overs along the banks of the rivulet was a sight telling its own tale, waste materials (plastic mainly) and logs were there. Small culverts had all of this! The rivulet encroachment and narrowed depth could have been another reason for choice of water gushes’ multiple pathways.

Everyone here in the village has theories, on the basis of lived experience and understanding. My observations, listed above, could be extrapolated as reasons leading to extreme event, experienced few days ago. But what is the solution? Experts have been vociferously bringing it to our attention for decades - Disaster Risk Reduction.

Amidst the clarion call for actions to address visibly humongous causes of climate change, there are sane and pertinent voices in the policy circles, global conferences and advocacy initiatives, calling for mainstreaming disaster risk reduction.

Every US$1 invested in risk reduction and prevention can save up to US$15 in post-disaster recovery (UNDRR). UN Secretary-General António Guterres in his message on Disaster Risk Reduction Day (in 2019) informed that, “For Every Dollar Invested in Climate-Resilient Infrastructure Six Dollars Are Saved.”

Disaster Management Act (2005) mandates Mainstreaming Disaster Risk Reduction (MDRR) into Development and Disaster Management Plans. Globally, there is an emerging consensus, calling for factoring risk considerations into development activities to achieve sustained reduction in disaster loses. Risk sensitive land-use planning, building regulations with provisions for structural safety against natural hazards, construction of hazard resistant infrastructures including housing, mechanism for disaster risk audit, catastrophic risk insurance etc. could reduce future disaster risks (NDMA).

MDRR into the development planning process essentially means looking critically at each activity that is being planned, from the perspective of reducing the disaster vulnerability of that activity and from the perspective of minimizing that activity's potential contribution to hazard specific vulnerability. Prevalent approaches of mainstreaming disaster management into the development process and disaster management involves - Structural Measures, Non Structural Measures and Disaster Mitigation Projects.

Development activities and disaster risk reduction has to go hand in hand. Prime Minister’s Ten Point Agenda for Disaster Risk Reduction highlight pertinent points for consideration and action. The first point lays out that All development sectors must imbibe the principles of disaster risk management. It cautions that while a planned development can reduce the risks of disasters, the absence of proper planning can aggravate them. It is, therefore, essential to imbibe disaster risk reduction approach in all development schemes and focus on reducing disaster risks and not create them!