History repeats itself first as tragedy, second as a farce, said Karl Marx. But one finds history does not repeat in the Indian state of Odisha! Instead, glorious chapters keep adding to the history book of the State in the place of the gloomy ones of the past when historical events revisit. No more does Odisha provide a historian with a repeated horrifying spectacle of mass starvation deaths of its past famine days of 1866 or of the Bengal famine days of 1940s. No more does the State offer another heart-breaking story of uncountable human deaths of the Super Cyclone -1999 when a high- intensity sea-storm hits its coast.
Naveen Patnaik, who assumed the office of the Chief Minister of Odisha in 2000, after the devastating 1999-Super Cyclone and has been continuing in office since then, is greeted today with honour and appreciation from various quarters including the United Nations, for the deft management of numerous deadly cyclones, be it Fani of 2013 or the recent cyclone Yass , resulting in remarkable protection of human life . The Government's model of pre-cyclone evacuation of vulnerable people is paying off in saving thousands of lives The successful Naveen model of cyclone management has to move to the next higher level of disaster management to comply with the goals set by the UN- Sendai Framework of Disaster Risk Reduction-2015-2030.
The Sendai -framework outlines four priorities and seven clear targets for member nations in disaster management. The four priority areas are (i) understanding of disaster risk, (ii) strengthening the disaster risk governance to manage disaster risk, (iii) investing in disaster reduction for resilience and (iv) enhancing disaster preparedness for effective response and to "Build Back Better" in recovery, rehabilitation and reconstruction.
The seven 2030-Targets are (i) substantial reduction in global disaster mortality by 2030, aiming to lower average per 100,000 global mortality between 2020-2030 compared to 2005-2015, (ii)substantial reduction in the size of affected people globally, aiming to lower the average global figure per 100,000 between 2020-2030 compared to 2005-2015, (iii)reduction of direct disaster economic loss in relation to the global gross domestic product (GDP), (iv)substantial reduction of disaster damage to critical infrastructure and disruption of basic services such as health and educational facilities, including development of their resilience,(v) substantial increase in the number of countries with national and local disaster risk reduction strategies (vi) substantial enhancement of international cooperation for developing countries through adequate and sustainable support to complement their national actions for implementation of this framework by (vii) substantial increase in the availability of and access to multi-hazard early warning systems and disaster risk information and assessments to people. From these seven targets the first four targets are output –targets ,related to damage reduction while the rest three targets are input -related targets ,related to better strategy, cooperation and disaster-warning.
The principles of the framework put the primary responsibility of disaster risk reduction on the State in inclusive and participatory manner and advocate working hand in hand with the other global treaties such as the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, the Addis Ababa Action Agenda on Financing for Development, and the SustainableDevelopmentGoals-2030.
Though the Framework has been adopted since 2015, the national Governments have not shown faster response like they showed to the UNSDG-2030. This is because there is still relief mindset in disaster management sector. Only five nations have done work in this regard. Had the nations drawn their national action plans as per Sendai framework, the SARS-CoV- virus-family would have been mapped as biological hazard by China and other nations. This would have led to the prevention plans at national and regional levels which could have saved the world today from the Covid-19 pandemic.
Till now the global disaster-management bodies have not declared Covid-19 as biological disaster. The faster the nations work out their Sendai- framework action plans, the earlier the world is put under a better disaster safety net. India is not new to disaster management.
Historically, it has been fighting against natural disasters like floods, cyclones, droughts, earthquakes, landslides and so on. The industrial disasters, manmade disasters like terrorism and Left Wing Extremism, biological disasters and others are adding to the list. The nation has a National Disaster Management Policy and the National Disaster Management Act, 2005 prior to the Sendai framework. The State Governments have adequate structure, policy and law to manage the natural disasters though new disasters like tsunami or earthquake pose high risk.
However, the structure and attitude of the nation is more towards relief- approach in disaster management than towards risk mitigation. The Union Ministry of Home Affairs is the nodal agency for disaster management in India and is the agency for the implementation of the Sendai-framework.
India has already started work and has come out with a Disaster Reduction Plan in 2016 based on the four priority themes of the Framework. But the process later slowed down. Now, the Niti Ayog should be involved as the facilitating platform. The four priority and four target areas of Sendai-framework should be spelt out from the Panchyat level in bottom-up approach. This must be integrated with the development strategy of UNSDG-2030 and other relevant protocols.
What about Odisha? The hazard or disaster map of the State has changed over time. Today, the State faces different types of hazards such as natural, industrial, biological, manmade, ecological and digital ones. Cyclone is the most devastating hazard in the State.
The State Government has to redraw its State disaster management plan taking the four priority areas of Sendai framework and move to second, third and fourth Sandei-targets such as substantial reduction in the size of affected people, reduction of direct disaster economic loss ,substantial reduction of disaster damage to critical infrastructure and basic services.
(The writer is a freelance journalist. lalitdemocrat@gmail.com)
