As
Indian-controlled Kashmir reels from ravaging floods, India's disaster
management authorities have come under fire yet again. Experts say that more
efforts are required to minimize the impact of the future calamities.
Deutsche Welle, 22 Sep 2014
According
to the Indian government's estimates, more than 2,500 villages in the northern
Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir have been destroyed by this year's floods,
with approximately five million people – including 2.2 million children –
displaced and are vulnerable to a looming epidemic.
 |
| PM Narendra Modi flew over the region to take note of the situation |
The
flooding – worst in a century - began on September 3 due to heavy monsoon
rains. Since then, the waters have been moving downstream from
Indian-administered Kashmir through Pakistan's Punjab, inundating vast swathes
of villages and small towns.
Many people
in India now question whether the scale of the disaster could have been
lessened had the authorities been more prepared. "There were warnings
about an imminent flood which were never heeded," Valay Singh Rai, an
official for the non-governmental organization Save the Children in India, told
DW. "The intensity of the calamity could be attributed to poor resource
management and lack of planning," he added.
The state's
Flood Control Department said it had issued a precise warning of floods.
India's Central Water Commission, which deals with flood forecasting, too, had
warned of "immense flooding."
Effects of
climate change
Rai, who
has been part of the relief and rehabilitation work in Jammu and Kashmir,
points to the" near absence of the government's agencies" when the
floods swamped the Himalayan region.
"There
was simply no disaster management. It was ordinary people who took part in
relief efforts. The civil administration simply vanished. Surely, the army
stepped in and air-dropped food supplies, but what happened to the state's
contingency plans?" asked Amitabh Mattoo, a professor of International
Studies in Srinagar.
Chandra
Bhushan, deputy director general at the Centre for Science and Environment
(CSE) - a research and advocacy organization – is of the view that the Kashmir
floods are yet another harsh reminder that climate change is hitting the South
Asian nation harder.
"India
will be affected more severely by extreme rainfalls as the world continues to
get warmer. India needs to be pro-active," Bhushan told DW.
No lesson
learnt
According
to the India Disaster Knowledge Network, the Indian subcontinent is among the
world's most disaster prone areas. Almost 85 per cent of India's geographical
area is vulnerable to one or multiple natural disasters – from wind storms
spawned in the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea to earthquakes in Himalayas
and floods and droughts in the country's arid and semi-arid regions.
For
instance, the 2005 Mumbai floods and flash floods in the Himalayan state of
Uttarkhand in 2013 were all catastrophic and had killed thousands of people and
incurred huge economic losses.
 |
| India was overwhelmed by intensity of monsoon floods |
"We
have not learnt any lesson. The planners should take a closer look at the
development programs in these areas," Jaya Iyer, an environment
conservationist working for the non-governmental organization Vividhara, told
DW.
But the
National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), the top government body which
formulates policy on disaster management, says it is better equipped to handle
calamities than before. It, however, admits that there is a need for capacity
building and better coordination.
"Our
early warning systems are good but our state disaster relief forces are
hampered by lack of human resources," argues Muzaffar Ahmad, an NDMA
official.
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