Disaster Management

 Disaster Management

How does our government respond during times of disaster?

In the event of any disaster, the decision making authority must be as decentralised as possible, in order to ensure quick communication and better understanding of the field conditions. This ensures that the decisions made by the authority are quickly implemented on the field.

One of the key decision-making authorities during the time of any disaster is the District Collector.

Every district has rural and urban areas.

Urban areas are divided into Corporations/Municipalities/Panchayats and further divided into divisions.

The rural areas are divided into Blocks, Panchayats and Wards.

Every ward has a Ward Level Team. The official members of this team are:

• Ward Member who is an elected representative from the public.

• ASHA Worker (Accredited Social Health Activist) is a community health worker who is trained by the Health Department and nominated by the Local Self Government Department (LSGD).

Asha Workers report to the Subcenter (a grassroot level office of the health department for approximately 5000 population) where there is a Junior Health Inspector (JHI) and Junior Public Health Nurse (JPHN). Higher on the hierarchy is the Primary Health Centre (PHC), at Panchayat level, it's called Family Health Centre or Community Health Centre (CHC). These centres have a doctor, a pharmacist and a lab with basic support systems. At Least 10-20 people work here. These centres take care of the public health needs. Above this is the Taluk hospital, and further above is the Jilla or General Hospital. At this level there is usually a separate centre for Women and Children.

The medical colleges that we commonly hear about are part of a separate Medical Education system under the Director of Medical Education (DME). Nursing colleges may be under either the medical education system or under the general hospitals.

We shall read about the structure of the health system in the coming chapters.

• Anganwadi Worker is appointed by the Social Justice Department to work for the welfare of Mothers and Children. They are in the payroll of the State Government.

Anganwadi workers are monitored by ICDS (Integrated Child Development Services) Supervisor and Child Development Project Officer (CDPO). They have officers at block and the district levels.

The Department of Social Welfare has a special wing in the collectorate. Social Security Mission is a program/wing similarly supported by the Social Welfare Department under the State Government Program. They supervise and support the ICDS and CDP. It is ultimately under the control of the Health Minister.

• Kudumbashree ADS Chairperson ( Applicable to the state of Kerala )

The objective of Kudumbashree is Poverty Alleviation through Women Empowerment. Women in the community can form their own Self-Help groups(Ayalkootam). An ayalkootam has 10-20 women members. An average ward may have 10-15 such Self-Help Groups (Ayalkootam).

Each Self-Help Group (Ayalkootam) nominates 1 person to form an Area Development Society (ADS) within every ward. The ADS has a Secretary and a Chairperson. The ADS Chairperson will have direct control over all the Self-Help Groups (Ayalkootam) within the ward. This ADS chairperson is also part of the Ward Level Team.

Kudumbashree is an independent society that has its own election mechanism till the Panchayat Level. Above the Ward Level there is CDS (Community Development Society). From each Self Help Group, one nominated person forms the ADS (Area Development Society) at the Ward level and one person from each ADS is nominated to form the CDS.

Although only women from the community form these groups, the benefits reach the whole family. Therefore, out of 400 families in a ward, on an average, at least 100-150 families will be part of this society. Thus, the benefit reaches to at least 30% of the community.

Ward Level Team also includes other stakeholders like:Non Governmental Organisation (NGOs), Community Based Organisations (CBOs) Eg: Rotary club, Lions Club, may even be political organisations, Residents Associations, representatives of churches, temples etc.

These are individuals or groups who are actively involved in various sectors and activities in the community.

The different members of the team may have their own agendas or designated roles but in the time of crisis, they all come together and work with unity.

This team is self-sufficient to a large extent in dealing with any problem within the community without much external support.

This team is the most effective body at the field level.They are the ones who ultimately work with the community. Many times, we underestimate the power and effectiveness of the ward level team. Our goal is to empower this team to be more efficient and work alongside them to overcome various challenges.

These four official members of the ward level team belong to different arms or departments of the state and community. The hierarchy of the system must be understood from bottom to top.

Introduction

India is prone to a number of disasters. The super cyclone of Odissa(1999),the Gujarat earthquake(2001), the Tsunami(2004) and Kerala floods( 2018,2019) were just a few of the disasters that led to heavy loss of life and left many stranded. We need to be aware of potential hazards, their frequency of occurring, where they might occur and the problems that may result in a disaster.

The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), headed by the Prime Minister of India is responsible for the management of disasters in the country. As per the Disaster Management Act, 2005, State and District statutory bodies are created for smooth functioning.

Every state in the country has a State Disaster Management Authority that is responsible for taking steps towards mitigating the damage and destruction after a disaster and to make sure the state is prepared.

A well-coordinated and unified response of various departments of the State, its agencies, the Central Government, its departments and agencies appropriate to the demands of the district administration minimizes the loss of time wasted in response and improves the process of recovery.

Disaster Management

Disaster Management can be defined as the preparedness, response and recovery methods in order to lessen the impact of disasters. A disaster disrupts the normal function of the society to the extent that it cannot function without outside help.

Disasters can be classified as natural, technological or complex emergencies. Let's take a look at the natural disasters in Kerala.

In August 2018,Kerala was hit by incessant rains followed by one of the worst floods that the state has witnessed in decades. All the dams of the state were filled to capacity and gates had to be opened to keep the dams safe. Hundreds died and thousands of homes were affected and damaged. More than a million people had to take shelter in relief camps. Normal life came to a standstill. The heavy rain acted as a trigger for more than 600 landslides in the state.

The entire nation came forward to lend a helping hand to the Kerala flood victims. Central Government, State Governments, Union Territories, Multi National Corporations, Big Business Houses, Celebrities, Sportsmen and women, schools, colleges, and common people have contributed to Kerala’s Chief Minister’s Relief Fund generously. Apart from these generous donations, it was the local community coming together for rescue missions and volunteering in relief camps that had an enormous impact on the return to normalcy.

Awareness and preparedness are the most effective prevention and mitigation measures against all disasters.

Prevention Of Natural disasters

Floods and Landslides being the most common natural disaster in the state, prevention methods of floods and landslides can be categorised into three.

1. Vegetative measures: Preserving vegetation, grasses and trees can minimize the amount of water infiltrating into the soil, slow the erosion caused by surface-water flow, and remove water from the soil.
2. Structural Measures: Retaining and Diverting water using dams,floodplains,levees etc Constructing piles & retention walls Improving surface & subsurface drainage Rock-fall protection
3. Management measures: Integrated river basin approach Public awareness, participation and insurance Land use zoning & risk assessment Flood forecasting and warning systems

However, it is impossible to be prepared for any kind of disaster since it is impossible to predict or foresee it. The Corona Pandemic took the world by surprise. There may occur many more kinds of disasters that may require the community and state to respond to differently.

The community is the first responder to any disaster. It is important that we prepare ourselves to face and respond to disasters.

Community Contingency Plan

A community contingency plan is a set of activities that a neighbourhood, community or group of people agree to follow inorder to respond well in times of an emergency. Developing a contingency plan involves making decisions in advance about the management of human and financial resources, coordination and communications procedures, and being aware of a range of technical and logistical responses.

The planning process can be answered with three questions.

• What is going to happen?

• What are we going to do about it?

• What can we do ahead of time to get prepared?

STEPS IN THE COMMUNITY CONTINGENCY PLAN

Prepare:

Planning should be specific to each context and take into consideration a number of factors including: the government’s disaster-response plans and capacity; reception and coordination of national, regional or global inputs; potential sources of donor support; the likelihood of disaster occurrence; and the vulnerability of the population.

Analyse:

Determining the risk of disaster to a population and its potential impact starts with an analysis of the likely hazards faced by a country or region. Once this has been done an assessment of vulnerabilities and capacities at local, national or regional levels can be undertaken.

Develop:

Based on the analysis, this step understands what the organisation has to do in response to the disaster which includes who needs to do what, when and where and what they will need to enable them to do it.

Implement:

Practising the plan, will help organizations and communities understand its main elements, and will help planners see what works and what doesn’t.

Review:

Keeping the disaster-response or contingency plan current and relevant is a challenging task, but can be achieved by scheduling regular reviews. The plan should specify the frequency of such reviews and the persons responsible for this.

Every state in the country has a state disaster management authority (SDMA) that is responsible for activities within the state under the Chairmanship of the Chief Minister of the respective states. All SDMAs have state committees and District DMAs under their leadership. Kerala State Disaster Management Authority(KSDMA) is one of the 29 SDMAs of India.

For instance, lets take a look at how Disaster Management System functions in Kerala

According to the Kerala State Disaster Management Policy (2010) and the Kerala State Disaster Management Plan (2016), nodal departments have been identified for undertaking disaster risk reduction functions related to the respective disasters. The two major departments that have to work together for effective disaster response are the Department of Revenue and the Department of Home.

State Control Rooms

The control rooms of the two above-mentioned departments function under the administrative control of the respective Department Heads, they being Commissioner Land Revenue and the Director-General of Police, respectively.

The Control Rooms of Revenue and Home function 24 hours. The Department of Fisheries operates a 24 x 7 control room in their headquarters and all districts to coordinate during fishing vessel accidents that frequently occur in the sea.

State Emergency Operating Centre

The government of Kerala has established the State Emergency Operating Centre (SEOC) as a state-level dedicated disaster management facility. The SEOC caters to varying levels of disasters with a multidisciplinary team who have hands-on experience in managing major disasters, a well-structured Decision Support System (DSS) and GSM, terrestrial and Satellite-based audio, video and data communication network. The facility is housed in a dedicated disaster resilient building with adequate technical facilities as well as human resources. All districts in the State have fully functional district emergency operations centres(DEOC). The EOCs are part of the national emergency communication plan and are located in the State Head Quarters, Thiruvananthapuram and all District Head Quarters.

District Emergency Operations Centres

The DEOC is under the direct control of District Incident Commander. The first dedicated district emergency operations centre with 24 hours staff from Revenue, Police and Fire & Rescue and a full-time medical doctor on-call started functioning at Alappuzha district of Kerala on 5th September 2014. Presently all DDMAs have operating District Emergency Operations Centres.

Sources: Orange book of Disaster Management, Kerala state disaster management plan(2016), Training Module Incident Response System Basic & Intermediate(NIDM)