Disaster Management

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.

Vegetative measures: Preserving vegetation, grasses and trees can minimize the amount of  infiltrating into the soil, slow the erosion caused by surface-water flow, and remove water from the soil.

Structural Measures: Retaining and Diverting water using dams, floodplains, levees etc. Constructing piles & retention walls Improving surface & subsurface drainage Rock-fall protection

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.

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.

 Man made disasters: Disasters that are caused by human beings are called man-made disasters. Examples are nuclear bombs, transportation accidents etc.

  The most serious threats occur due to nuclear, biological and chemical warfare which are collectively known as WMD or Weapons of Mass Destruction.

Nuclear Weapons:

Nuclear weapons are the most dangerous weapons on earth. One can destroy a whole city, potentially killing millions, and jeopardizing the natural environment and lives of future generations through its long-term catastrophic effects. The dangers from such weapons arise from their very existence. Although nuclear weapons have only been used twice in warfare—in the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945—about 13,400 reportedly remain in our world today and there have been over 2,000 nuclear tests conducted to date. Disarmament is the best protection against such dangers, but achieving this goal has been a tremendously difficult challenge.

Biological weapons:

Biological weapons disseminate disease-causing organisms or toxins to harm or kill humans, animals or plants. They can be deadly and highly contagious. Diseases caused by such weapons would not confine themselves to national borders and could spread rapidly around the world. The consequences of the deliberate release of biological agents or toxins by state or non-state actors could be dramatic. In addition to the tragic loss of lives, such events could cause food shortages, environmental catastrophes, devastating economic loss, and widespread illness, fear and mistrust among the public.

Chemical Weapons:

The modern use of chemical weapons began with World War I, when both sides to the conflict used poisonous gas to inflict agonizing suffering and to cause significant battlefield casualties. Such weapons basically consisted of well known commercial chemicals put into standard munitions such as grenades and artillery shells. Chlorine, phosgene (a choking agent) and mustard gas (which inflicts painful burns on the skin) were among the chemicals used. The results were indiscriminate and often devastating. Nearly 100,000 deaths resulted. Since World War I, chemical weapons have caused more than one million casualties globally.

 Cyclones: Cyclones account for 30% of the total occurrences of disasters in India. It is defined as a region of low atmospheric pressure surrounded by high atmospheric pressure resulting in swirling atmospheric disturbance and accompanied by powerful winds. The Odissa super-cyclone in 1999 had a wind speed of 260-300 km/hr and killed thousands.