Disaster Risk Reduction
Context
India is highly prone to natural hazards such as droughts, floods, cyclones, landslides, tsunamis and earthquakes. Climate change, environmental degradation, high population density combined with a very high number of people living in poverty are factors that increase the vulnerability of a population and can turn hazards into major disasters. A deficiency in capacities and knowledge to tackle natural hazards, limited political will and commitment together with a lack of planning and preparedness exacerbate the situation. In India, the nature of extreme weather incidents and disasters varies from one geographic region to another.
In rural areas, nearly 700 million people are engaged in agriculture, fisheries, and forestry, which are all sectors that are highly sensitive to climate influences.
More than one-third of the arable land is considered drought prone. Recurring droughts, especially in the semi-arid areas, inflict enormous damage to livelihoods. Certain states in the western part of India face drought in three out of every five years.
According to estimates from the Government of India nearly 40 million hectares of land is flood prone and one out of 20 people in the country faces floods every year. Parts of the country, especially the sub-Himalayan area are prone to earthquakes. The eastern coasts are especially vulnerable to cyclones and storm surges. With changing climate, weather events of growing intensities have increased and especially the poor are more and more at risk with their livelihood being mostly climate dependent. The consequences of global warming affect their lives and they suffer the most from land degradation and natural disasters, as they have no assets or insurances to tide them over and to reconstruct their lives.
“From 1980 to 2008 India has been affected by 395 natural disasters that killed a total of 139,393 people.”1 “Half of the total of 1.5 billion people
who have been affected by a natural disaster from 1980 to 2008 had to endure droughts’” 1 In 1987 and in 2002, India experienced droughts that affected 300 million people each.” 1 “On an average over the past 30 years
the disasters in India have caused an economic damage of 1. 7 billion
Swiss Francs per year.”1 “About 60% of the landmass in India is susceptible to earthquakes and over 8% is prone to floods. Of the nearly 7, 500 kilometers long coastline, approximately 5, 700 kilometers is prone to cyclones.” 2 “68% of India’s land area is susceptible to drought.” 2
1 India Disaster Statistics – Prevention Web. 2 Eleventh Five Year Plan 2007 – 2012.
Fac
ts and F
igu
res
SDC in India
Learning to Deal
with Natural Hazards
DR
Objective
SDC’s disaster risk reduction strategy aims at substantially reducing the losses in lives and assets as a consequence of natural disasters. SDC will therefore contribute to build the capacities of the people to tackle possible disasters in a systematic and coordinated manner. The framework of SDC for intervention in humanitarian aid and disaster risk reduction prioritizes action and practical means to achieve disaster resilience in vulnerable communities.
Response
Over the past decade, SDC has played an important role in relief and reconstruction efforts in several disasters. SDC supported the people after the Orissa cyclone in 1999, and helped the victims of the Gujarat earthquake in 2001. These interventions led to the Indo-Swiss framework agreement on humanitarian assistance between Government of India and the Government of Switzerland, which was signed in November 2003. The partnership with Government of India took a more concrete shape after the tsunami in 2004. India had passed the National Disaster Management Act in the Parliament in 2005, which led to the creation of the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) now a partner of the SDC in disaster risk reduction.
With this experience and know-how, SDC’s disaster risk reduction
strategy over
the next few years aims at substantially reducing the losses in lives and assets
as a consequence of natural disasters. SDC also seeks to build the capacities of
key actors to engage in mitigation and response. The strategy was developed
on the basis of SDC’s guidelines on disaster risk reduction and humanitarian
aid, which is in line with the Hyogo Framework of Action (HFA - see explanation
on the right). SDC puts DRR under the umbrella of climate change adaptation
because there is a considerable overlap on activities in the field in both
areas.
The ‘Indo Swiss Cooperation on Training (INSWIT) on Urban Search and
Rescue’, for example, is a collaboration based on the bilateral agreement on
humanitarian assistance signed in 2003. This initiative aims at building the
capacities of Indian forces to prepare for efficient and quick response should
a disaster strike. In the same way communities are also supported in learning
how to strengthen their response mechanisms.
Photo © Keystone The Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA) In January 2005, 168 Governments adopted a 10-year plan to make the world safer from natural hazards at the World Conference on Disaster Reduction, held in Kobe, Hyogo, Japan. The Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA) is a global blueprint for disaster risk reduction efforts for the next decade. Its goal is to substantially reduce disaster losses by 2015 - in lives, and in the social, economic, and environmental assets of communities and countries.
Partners
Government of India, Ministry of Home Affairs; National Disaster Management Authority
(NADRR); National Disaster Management Institute; Paramilitary Forces of India and their training institutions; Swiss Army; Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland (EPFL); Specialized Swiss organizations; Indian and Swiss institutions (academic, research, universities, civil society organizations) engaged in Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Change Adaptation; Indian civil society organizations; SEEDS (NGO, which houses the secretariat of NADRR).
Achieved and expected results
•
In 2007 and 2008 Swiss Army specialists have provided
intensive training for search dogs and their handlers, which
have increased the level of preparedness of the National
Disaster Response Forces in India to respond to disasters. As
a result of the cooperation, the para-military forces, training
academies and institutions in disaster risk reduction in India
are now better capacitated to impart quality training to their
forces in the area of urban search and rescue. In July 2009,
a Swiss planning mission will assist the National Disaster
Management Authority to develop and define a concept of
Training of Trainers for implementation. This is proposed to be
developed with the involvement of key stakeholders.
•
In 2008 the Certificate Course in Advanced Studies on Disaster
Risk Management and Climate Change helped build capacities
on various issues, concerns and perspectives in this area,
among operational staff in India as well as participants from
other countries. Field visits to Switzerland and the southern
parts of India offered them an opportunity to exchange
knowledge and learning across nations in the field of disaster
relief, rehabilitation and risk reduction.
•
The initiative of the National Alliance for Disaster Risk
Reduction (NADRR) has helped feed communities’ perspectives
into national policies, strategies, approaches and actions
in disaster risk reduction and climate change. Through
advocacy, capacity building, training and communication,
the NADRR also helped raising the level of awareness of
disaster preparedness among all key stakeholders. The role
of knowledge sharing at different levels to raise the level of
planning and preparedness for community based disaster risk
reduction was highlighted.
Phot
o © E
va v
an B
Impact
Success story: Mangroves for prosperity
Tamil Nadu in the South of India has a coastline of 950 kilometres. Extensive mangrove wetlands are located in Pichavaram in Cuddalore district (around 1, 350 ha) and in Muthupet in Thanjavur district (around 12, 000 ha). Mangrove forests are a very useful ecosystem serving multiple purposes and are a haven for many species. Local fisher and farmer communities depend on them for their livelihood. Mangroves can serve as a shield against natural calamities and help mitigate the impact of cyclones and tidal waves.Due to human induced and natural causes the mangrove forests are degrading fast. In Pichavaram the degradation reached a critical point in 1996 when 54 percent of the original forests had disappeared. In view of this, from August 2005 to the end of July 2008, SDC supported the M.S. Swaminathan Research foundation (MSSRF) in Tamil Nadu to implement a project. The project was expected to develop and demonstrate models utilizing mangroves as a bio-shield to mitigate the impact of natural disasters as well using them as a sustainable livelihood resource. The objective was to restore the mangrove forests in Pichavaram with help of the community. To this end the capacity of the local community, the local government (Panchayat), women groups, fisher folk and farmer’s organizations as well as government agencies and NGOs was enhanced to raise and maintain mangroves and other coastal vegetation. Training to increase their awareness helped them to better manage the mangrove forests. ‘Village Mangrove Councils’ were founded and they started to manage the mangroves together with the Tamil Nadu Forest Department. This then led to the communities having better access to financial and technical government schemes in the field of conservation. In total 625 ha of mangroves were restored and 5.5. million saplings were planted. The fauna also has started recovering and shellfish has increased in the restored areas, which also has a positive impact on the livelihood of the communities. The technology of seawater fish farming was developed as a model. The integrated mangrove and fishery farming provided livelihood options on lands that were not suitable for agriculture due to their salinity. The mangroves thus not only serve as a bio-shield, but also provide higher household incomes for the local communities.
The Ministry of Environment and Forests of the Government of India has included the integrated fishery-farming model as one of the strategies for conservation and sustainable management of mangroves in its National Mangrove Action Plan.
Success story: Women as decision makers
Alappad is a densely populated coastal village with 31,000 inhabitants in Kerala on the west coast of India. Unlike in other coastal villages of Kerala, the level of educational and cultural activities in Alappad is relatively high. The village has 163 organized self-help neighbourhood groups and 171 women groups. Women mostly do not work outside their homes. The village has a big stream of national and foreign visitors as it houses a famous ashram.SDC has engaged with the Panchayat (elected local government body) of Alappad since the beginning of 2004. In December 2004 the Indian Ocean tsunami wreaked havoc in the village, taking away the lives of 150 villagers - mostly children and elderly people. The loss of property was enormous. In the wake of the disaster, the State and Central Governments activated the disaster response mechanisms. The village was receiving relief and rehabilitation support. But the efforts ignored the local sensitivities and were bypassing elected local government structures. SDC decided to support the rehabilitation process in Alappad with the construction of a Women’s Resource Centre. The Centre was to be included in the reconstruction of an Anganwadi (child care centre) destroyed by the tsunami. But this time the local population was engaged in the reconstruction process from the start. They made decisions on what kind of building should be constructed, which architect should be selected and also had a say in the monitoring of the process. For the inauguration of the Centre, the elected Gram Panchayat (local governance body) took the lead. This entire process boosted the confidence level of the Gram Panchayat in their capacity to conceptualize and implement rehabilitation measures in the wake of disasters.
This experience was brought to the knowledge of the State Government and has the potential to contribute to policy and strategies development on disaster response, rehabilitation and risk reduction. Phot o © B enoit M ar quet/UNDP
