Santosh Singh
The Indian Express Group
The World Bank has offered to Kosi flood relief beneficiaries an incentive that is expected to put the reconstruction process on fast track: rebuild your houses in six months and get toilets and solar lights worth Rs 7,300 free of cost.
The offer stands for 1,00,00 beneficiaries under the $259 million Bihar Kosi Recovery Project started in collaboration with Bihar government recently. World Bank president Robert B Zoellick was in Patna last month to sign the agreement with Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. Bihar’s share in the project is $39 million.
Over 30,000 people have already got Rs 30,000 each as first installment in their bank accounts. The second installment of Rs 20,000 each will be released after construction is completed till lintel level.
A house owner, though free to engage mason and workers of his choice, will have to build the house on at least 215 sqft area under the project.
As the house model is designed by disaster management experts who have worked in Bhuj and tsunami reconstruction, the owner has to choose from three models — bamboo wall with an attic, brick wall with an attic and brick wall with Reinforced Concrete Construction roof. A owner must avoid using jute, iron wires or nylon to tie knots but has to use zippers that can last 25 years. Only three-year-old bamboo can be used for such houses.
Non-compliance of the World Bank specifications would mean disqualification for incentives or even withholding of the second installment.
State coordinator with Owner Driven Reconstruction Collaborative, a network of reconstruction agencies helping the government in the Kosi project, Sanjay Pandey, told The Indian Express: “Each house will get Rs 2,300 for a toilet and Rs 5,000 for solar lighting only if the house is constructed within six months as per our specifications. Masons, social workers and engineers will also get incentives for house construction within six months.”
Pandey said while the toilet and solar lighting incentives have got listed beneficiaries from Madhepura, Supaul and Saharasa scramble at respective block offices to complete formalities, there is a sense of urgency among engineers, masons and social workers too.
An engineer can get Rs 100 per house incentive for a maximum 1,000 houses. A mason, who will supervise the construction, will get Rs 150 per house for maximum 100 houses and a social worker can get Rs 50 for maximum 500 houses construction within six months.
Pandey said over 50 per cent of the 100,000 beneficiaries were from below the poverty line. Madhepura district where 11 of 13 blocks were flooded in 2008 has maximum number of beneficiaries. Besides housing, 90 bridges and 290 km of rural roads would also be constructed under the project.
Source :- http://www.indianexpress.com
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Showing posts with label Natural Disaster. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Natural Disaster. Show all posts
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
India for regional cooperation to tackle natural disasters
Colombo, (PTI) : India said it supports initiatives to facilitate regional cooperation in confronting the challenges posed by natural disasters.
"The South Asia Region in particular, is extremely vulnerable to these natural calamities which have frequently struck our region with ferocity. The loss in terms of lives and assets and deprivation and dislocation suffered by the people is enormous," Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar Kumar said.
Kumar was speaking at the opening session of the 3rd Asian regional conference of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) here.
The conference, which was opened by the Sri Lankan Prime Minister D M Jayaratne, aims to discuss issues on "Climate Change and Natural Disasters", "Poverty Alleviation" and "Mother and Child" which have been identified as top priority issues of the region.
"India whole-heartedly supports initiatives to facilitate regional cooperation in confronting the challenges posed by natural disasters and we are ever keen to share our expertise and experience in the field with our neighbours," Kumar said, referring to SAARC Disaster Management Centre established in New Delhi 2006.
She said that periodic exchanges of views among parliamentarians facilitate closer scrutiny of political, social and cultural issues.
Kumar said "we stand ready to provide whatever additional assistance is required", referring to devastation caused in floods in Sri Lanka twice within a month which affected more than one million persons on both occasions respectively.
India was one of the first countries to respond to Sri Lanka''s call for assistance in early January when the first wave of floods hit the eastern province of the country.
On poverty alleviation, she said that the "poverty is the most daunting challenge facing us today".
The overall achievements towards poverty eradication have been slow and uneven despite global commitments to reduce the poverty, she said.
Speaking on the other major issue addressed by the conference, "Mother and Child" , Kumar said that "between now and 2015, we will provide technical assistance to other countries, share our experience and will support the creation of a platform for global knowledge management to oversee the dissemination of best practices."
India is committed to spending over USD 3.5 billion each year on health services especially those aimed at women''s and children''s health.
Source :- http://news.in.msn.com
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"The South Asia Region in particular, is extremely vulnerable to these natural calamities which have frequently struck our region with ferocity. The loss in terms of lives and assets and deprivation and dislocation suffered by the people is enormous," Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar Kumar said.
Kumar was speaking at the opening session of the 3rd Asian regional conference of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) here.
The conference, which was opened by the Sri Lankan Prime Minister D M Jayaratne, aims to discuss issues on "Climate Change and Natural Disasters", "Poverty Alleviation" and "Mother and Child" which have been identified as top priority issues of the region.
"India whole-heartedly supports initiatives to facilitate regional cooperation in confronting the challenges posed by natural disasters and we are ever keen to share our expertise and experience in the field with our neighbours," Kumar said, referring to SAARC Disaster Management Centre established in New Delhi 2006.
She said that periodic exchanges of views among parliamentarians facilitate closer scrutiny of political, social and cultural issues.
Kumar said "we stand ready to provide whatever additional assistance is required", referring to devastation caused in floods in Sri Lanka twice within a month which affected more than one million persons on both occasions respectively.
India was one of the first countries to respond to Sri Lanka''s call for assistance in early January when the first wave of floods hit the eastern province of the country.
On poverty alleviation, she said that the "poverty is the most daunting challenge facing us today".
The overall achievements towards poverty eradication have been slow and uneven despite global commitments to reduce the poverty, she said.
Speaking on the other major issue addressed by the conference, "Mother and Child" , Kumar said that "between now and 2015, we will provide technical assistance to other countries, share our experience and will support the creation of a platform for global knowledge management to oversee the dissemination of best practices."
India is committed to spending over USD 3.5 billion each year on health services especially those aimed at women''s and children''s health.
Source :- http://news.in.msn.com
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CDRN Team :-
Communications@cdrn.org.in
Ph. No - 011-65422890
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Monday, February 7, 2011
Cost Of Natural Disasters $109 Billion In 2010
Natural disasters caused $109 billion in economic damage last year, three times more than in 2009, with Chile and China bearing most of the cost, the United Nations said Monday.
The 8.8-magnitude earthquake that struck Chile in February cost $30 billion. Landslides and floods last summer in China caused $18 billion in losses, data compiled by the Center for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED) showed.
Although Haiti's January 12 earthquake was the deadliest event of 2010, killing 316,000 people according to the government in Port-au-Prince, its economic toll was $8 billion. The July-August floods in Pakistan cost $9.5 billion.
Margareta Wahlstrom, the U.N. assistant secretary-general for disaster risk reduction, said fast-developing countries were facing increasing price tags from natural disasters.
"The accumulated wealth that is affected by disaster events is growing," she told a news briefing in Geneva, where most of the U.N.'s emergency and aid operations are based.
Cities are particularly vulnerable to big economic losses when poorly-maintained infrastructure is rattled by earthquakes or exposed to big storms, Wahlstrom said.
"With more extreme weather events, and more earthquakes in urban areas, the state of repair or disrepair in urban areas is really critical," she said.
CLIMATE CHANGE
The most populous cities on earthquake fault lines include Mexico City, New York, Mumbai, Delhi, Shanghai, Kolkata, Jakarta and Tokyo, according to the U.N.'s International Strategy for Disaster Reduction.
Many people also live in parts of urban areas vulnerable to landslides and floods, which are anticipated to occur more often as a result of climate change, Wahlstrom said, also warning of rising risks from "silent events" like droughts.
Of the 373 disasters recorded last year, 22 were in China, 16 were in India and 14 were in the Philippines, CRED said.
The storms, earthquakes, heatwaves and cold snaps affected 207 million people and killed 296,800, according to the data, which does not incorporate an increase of Haiti's death toll announced earlier this month by Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive.
The global toll estimates that 55,736 people died from a summer heatwave in Russia which led to crop failures and helped drive up food prices.
It also says 2,968 people were killed in an April earthquake in China and 1,985 died from the Pakistani floods.
The 2009 economic price tag of $34.9 billion was unusually low because of the lack of a major weather or climate event in the period, which nonetheless saw floods and typhoons in Asia and an earthquake in Indonesia.
A major earthquake in China in 2008 caused $86 billion in damage, bringing that year's economic toll to approximately $200 billion. In 2005, the hurricanes that struck the southern United States drove up the global disaster toll to nearly $250 billion.
The economic cost estimates are based on data from national authorities as well as insurance companies including Swiss Re, Munich Re and Lloyd's. CRED is part of the University of Louvain in Belgium and maintains a database of international disasters for the United Nations.
Source :-planetark.org
http://cdrn.org.in/show.detail.asp?id=21465
CDRN Team
Swati Pahuja
Ph. No - 011-65422890
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Vasant Kunj
New Delhi
communications@cdrn.org.in
The 8.8-magnitude earthquake that struck Chile in February cost $30 billion. Landslides and floods last summer in China caused $18 billion in losses, data compiled by the Center for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED) showed.
Although Haiti's January 12 earthquake was the deadliest event of 2010, killing 316,000 people according to the government in Port-au-Prince, its economic toll was $8 billion. The July-August floods in Pakistan cost $9.5 billion.
Margareta Wahlstrom, the U.N. assistant secretary-general for disaster risk reduction, said fast-developing countries were facing increasing price tags from natural disasters.
"The accumulated wealth that is affected by disaster events is growing," she told a news briefing in Geneva, where most of the U.N.'s emergency and aid operations are based.
Cities are particularly vulnerable to big economic losses when poorly-maintained infrastructure is rattled by earthquakes or exposed to big storms, Wahlstrom said.
"With more extreme weather events, and more earthquakes in urban areas, the state of repair or disrepair in urban areas is really critical," she said.
CLIMATE CHANGE
The most populous cities on earthquake fault lines include Mexico City, New York, Mumbai, Delhi, Shanghai, Kolkata, Jakarta and Tokyo, according to the U.N.'s International Strategy for Disaster Reduction.
Many people also live in parts of urban areas vulnerable to landslides and floods, which are anticipated to occur more often as a result of climate change, Wahlstrom said, also warning of rising risks from "silent events" like droughts.
Of the 373 disasters recorded last year, 22 were in China, 16 were in India and 14 were in the Philippines, CRED said.
The storms, earthquakes, heatwaves and cold snaps affected 207 million people and killed 296,800, according to the data, which does not incorporate an increase of Haiti's death toll announced earlier this month by Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive.
The global toll estimates that 55,736 people died from a summer heatwave in Russia which led to crop failures and helped drive up food prices.
It also says 2,968 people were killed in an April earthquake in China and 1,985 died from the Pakistani floods.
The 2009 economic price tag of $34.9 billion was unusually low because of the lack of a major weather or climate event in the period, which nonetheless saw floods and typhoons in Asia and an earthquake in Indonesia.
A major earthquake in China in 2008 caused $86 billion in damage, bringing that year's economic toll to approximately $200 billion. In 2005, the hurricanes that struck the southern United States drove up the global disaster toll to nearly $250 billion.
The economic cost estimates are based on data from national authorities as well as insurance companies including Swiss Re, Munich Re and Lloyd's. CRED is part of the University of Louvain in Belgium and maintains a database of international disasters for the United Nations.
Source :-planetark.org
http://cdrn.org.in/show.detail.asp?id=21465
CDRN Team
Swati Pahuja
Ph. No - 011-65422890
B5/6 , 4599,
Vasant Kunj
New Delhi
communications@cdrn.org.in
Natural Disaster Contributed to Price Rise Could Spark Unrest
High and volatile prices for key commodities, including food products, could spark unrest in poor countries, warned the heads of the WTO and the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) on Monday.
Rising food prices “are now stoking global inflation, not to mention political unrest of proportions that we could have seldom imagined” said WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy, speaking at the opening of a two-day conference on commodities in Geneva this week.
UNCTAD Secretary-General Supachai Panitchpakdi echoed his comments, telling delegates that a predictable supply of commodities is needed “to address the acute problems of food and energy security, especially in environments of extreme poverty with the potential for social and political unrest.”
While neither Supachai or Lamy explicitly mentioned the political upheaval in North Africa and the Middle East, tension around food prices and unemployment may have been a factor that helped trigger protests.
Supachai cautioned that growing numbers of young people in the developing world “will not easily withstand” future price rises, especially given the lack of social protection in many countries, and “what has so far been a jobless recovery” from the recession.
Demand: Propelled by growth
Supachai told delegates that copper prices had risen 35 percent since the summer, while gold, sugar, and cotton were all at 30 year highs. The FAO´s agricultural commodity index had recently touched just one point below its maximum level reached in 2008, Supachai noted, “clearly signaling that the 2010-11 price hikes are similar in magnitude to 2008″.
Lamy predicted that prices for most commodities would continue to rise in 2011, as global GDP growth of 4 percent bolsters demand. Over 70 percent of the growth would come from commodity-intensive emerging markets, he said, with China, India and Latin America playing a major role.
“The ascent in prices is likely to be most pronounced for crude oil, due to contracting global inventories, copper, gold, corn, and soybeans” said Lamy. “Droughts and biofuels in several parts of the world have tightened the supply of corn and soy, together with much higher Asian demand for the latter”.
Natural gas, zinc and cattle would see the least pronounced price rises, Lamy said, with higher grain prices having slowed demand for live cattle.
Supachai argued that that the rise in commodity prices was likely to continue. “The historical trend is towards increasing demand, especially in high growth areas in the developing world”, he observed. Commodity producers could benefit from the increased demand, he said, if resource rents were properly managed.
Supply: Floods, fire, drought, and biofuels
Natural disasters had contributed to the tightness of supply, speakers at the conference acknowledged. Last year “major weather events, from floods in Pakistan to fires in Russia and drought in other areas of the world” had affected the prices of commodities such as wheat and cotton, Supachai said.
Lamy noted that corn and soy supply had been affected by drought as well, with biofuel policies an additional factor affecting the growth in demand.
“It is still open to speculation whether such events are related to climate change”, said Supachai, “but the balance of evidence points to the increasing impact of climatic changes on agriculture”.
Hunger rising
David Nabarro, who was appointed by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon as a special representative on food security and nutrition, also echoed Lamy and Supachai’s concerns. During previous price spikes in 2008, a 30 to 50 increase in the food bill of the poorest one billion people “led to some very, very difficult choices”, Nabarro said, noting that small children and pregnant women had been hit particularly hard by the shocks.
Supachai underscored that the poorest communities were most at risk from sudden price changes. “Volatility has huge negative impacts on vulnerable groups, such as low-income households in developing countries, for whom food expenditure can account for up to 80 per cent of household budgets”, he warned.
More than one hundred million people are believed to have been pushed into hunger as a result of the 2008 price spikes. “These are people whose voices are not generally heard”, Nabarro noted, “but some of them did decide that this was just too much to bear, and in more than 32 countries we had riots by people who just could not cope with these food price rises”.
The current food price situation is therefore “not just an issue of hunger and nutrition, it’s also an issue of security,” he argued.
Debate on role of commodity markets
The magnitudes of recent price volatility “point to speculative distortions” which can complicate the management of commodities production and trade, Supachai told the meeting. The “financialisation” of agricultural commodities, and the activities of certain commodity funds that “seek to manipulate prices” also played a role, he said.
However, other participants at the forum argued that speculation had played little, if any role, in contributing to recent price spikes. “There is little evidence that speculators have been the underlying cause” of dramatic corn and wheat price increases in the last six months, said Brian Durkin, managing director and chief executive officer of CME Group, a Chicago-based operator of derivatives and futures exchanges.
At the instigation of French President Nicolas Sarkozy, the G-20 group of leading economies is expected to highlight food price volatility in a series of summits throughout this year. France is reportedly keen to tackle speculation of commodity markets as part of this initiative.
Although Lamy made no mention of the relationship between price volatility and speculation in his remarks, he recently told a meeting of agriculture ministers that there was no consensus on how policy-makers should best respond.
Trade: Export restrictions and price volatility
Instead, said Lamy, governments should look at whether trade policies such as export restrictions have exacerbated shortages of commodities, especially for food. These measures “were the single most important reason for the 2007-08 price explosion on the rice market”, said Lamy, who also identified Russian and Ukrainian wheat bans as having made an important contribution to the 2010-11 price rise for cereals.
Lamy acknowledged that “there is an imbalance in the WTO rule-book between the stringency of the rules for imports and their laxity for exports”, even though export restrictions “could actually starve” net-food-importing countries. He suggested that the WTO’s ongoing Doha Round of trade talks provided countries with “a window” for tackling agricultural export taxes and export restrictions.
More broadly, Lamy suggested that a Doha deal would “oil the wheels of international trade in commodities, giving the developing world its fair share of the market”. Warning participants that “volatility is at its worst in tight and closed markets”, he emphasised that a Doha deal was an opportunity to reduce the developed world’s remaining tariff peaks, such as those on rice; an opportunity to reduce tariffs in emerging economies; and to cut developed country farm subsidies for products such as cotton. “These subsidies crowd out the developing world from international markets, and prevent it from fairly competing,” Lamy said.
Lamy also told the gathering that climate-induced pressures on resources would make a new global deal even more important. “Droughts, and other natural catastrophes, should not deprive parts of the globe from food,” he said.
Source :- http://ictsd.org
http://cdrn.org.in/show.detail.asp?id=21466
CDRN Team :-
Swati Pahuja
B5/6, 4599
Vasanat Kunj,
New Delhi-110070
communications@cdrn.org.in
Rising food prices “are now stoking global inflation, not to mention political unrest of proportions that we could have seldom imagined” said WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy, speaking at the opening of a two-day conference on commodities in Geneva this week.
UNCTAD Secretary-General Supachai Panitchpakdi echoed his comments, telling delegates that a predictable supply of commodities is needed “to address the acute problems of food and energy security, especially in environments of extreme poverty with the potential for social and political unrest.”
While neither Supachai or Lamy explicitly mentioned the political upheaval in North Africa and the Middle East, tension around food prices and unemployment may have been a factor that helped trigger protests.
Supachai cautioned that growing numbers of young people in the developing world “will not easily withstand” future price rises, especially given the lack of social protection in many countries, and “what has so far been a jobless recovery” from the recession.
Demand: Propelled by growth
Supachai told delegates that copper prices had risen 35 percent since the summer, while gold, sugar, and cotton were all at 30 year highs. The FAO´s agricultural commodity index had recently touched just one point below its maximum level reached in 2008, Supachai noted, “clearly signaling that the 2010-11 price hikes are similar in magnitude to 2008″.
Lamy predicted that prices for most commodities would continue to rise in 2011, as global GDP growth of 4 percent bolsters demand. Over 70 percent of the growth would come from commodity-intensive emerging markets, he said, with China, India and Latin America playing a major role.
“The ascent in prices is likely to be most pronounced for crude oil, due to contracting global inventories, copper, gold, corn, and soybeans” said Lamy. “Droughts and biofuels in several parts of the world have tightened the supply of corn and soy, together with much higher Asian demand for the latter”.
Natural gas, zinc and cattle would see the least pronounced price rises, Lamy said, with higher grain prices having slowed demand for live cattle.
Supachai argued that that the rise in commodity prices was likely to continue. “The historical trend is towards increasing demand, especially in high growth areas in the developing world”, he observed. Commodity producers could benefit from the increased demand, he said, if resource rents were properly managed.
Supply: Floods, fire, drought, and biofuels
Natural disasters had contributed to the tightness of supply, speakers at the conference acknowledged. Last year “major weather events, from floods in Pakistan to fires in Russia and drought in other areas of the world” had affected the prices of commodities such as wheat and cotton, Supachai said.
Lamy noted that corn and soy supply had been affected by drought as well, with biofuel policies an additional factor affecting the growth in demand.
“It is still open to speculation whether such events are related to climate change”, said Supachai, “but the balance of evidence points to the increasing impact of climatic changes on agriculture”.
Hunger rising
David Nabarro, who was appointed by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon as a special representative on food security and nutrition, also echoed Lamy and Supachai’s concerns. During previous price spikes in 2008, a 30 to 50 increase in the food bill of the poorest one billion people “led to some very, very difficult choices”, Nabarro said, noting that small children and pregnant women had been hit particularly hard by the shocks.
Supachai underscored that the poorest communities were most at risk from sudden price changes. “Volatility has huge negative impacts on vulnerable groups, such as low-income households in developing countries, for whom food expenditure can account for up to 80 per cent of household budgets”, he warned.
More than one hundred million people are believed to have been pushed into hunger as a result of the 2008 price spikes. “These are people whose voices are not generally heard”, Nabarro noted, “but some of them did decide that this was just too much to bear, and in more than 32 countries we had riots by people who just could not cope with these food price rises”.
The current food price situation is therefore “not just an issue of hunger and nutrition, it’s also an issue of security,” he argued.
Debate on role of commodity markets
The magnitudes of recent price volatility “point to speculative distortions” which can complicate the management of commodities production and trade, Supachai told the meeting. The “financialisation” of agricultural commodities, and the activities of certain commodity funds that “seek to manipulate prices” also played a role, he said.
However, other participants at the forum argued that speculation had played little, if any role, in contributing to recent price spikes. “There is little evidence that speculators have been the underlying cause” of dramatic corn and wheat price increases in the last six months, said Brian Durkin, managing director and chief executive officer of CME Group, a Chicago-based operator of derivatives and futures exchanges.
At the instigation of French President Nicolas Sarkozy, the G-20 group of leading economies is expected to highlight food price volatility in a series of summits throughout this year. France is reportedly keen to tackle speculation of commodity markets as part of this initiative.
Although Lamy made no mention of the relationship between price volatility and speculation in his remarks, he recently told a meeting of agriculture ministers that there was no consensus on how policy-makers should best respond.
Trade: Export restrictions and price volatility
Instead, said Lamy, governments should look at whether trade policies such as export restrictions have exacerbated shortages of commodities, especially for food. These measures “were the single most important reason for the 2007-08 price explosion on the rice market”, said Lamy, who also identified Russian and Ukrainian wheat bans as having made an important contribution to the 2010-11 price rise for cereals.
Lamy acknowledged that “there is an imbalance in the WTO rule-book between the stringency of the rules for imports and their laxity for exports”, even though export restrictions “could actually starve” net-food-importing countries. He suggested that the WTO’s ongoing Doha Round of trade talks provided countries with “a window” for tackling agricultural export taxes and export restrictions.
More broadly, Lamy suggested that a Doha deal would “oil the wheels of international trade in commodities, giving the developing world its fair share of the market”. Warning participants that “volatility is at its worst in tight and closed markets”, he emphasised that a Doha deal was an opportunity to reduce the developed world’s remaining tariff peaks, such as those on rice; an opportunity to reduce tariffs in emerging economies; and to cut developed country farm subsidies for products such as cotton. “These subsidies crowd out the developing world from international markets, and prevent it from fairly competing,” Lamy said.
Lamy also told the gathering that climate-induced pressures on resources would make a new global deal even more important. “Droughts, and other natural catastrophes, should not deprive parts of the globe from food,” he said.
Source :- http://ictsd.org
http://cdrn.org.in/show.detail.asp?id=21466
CDRN Team :-
Swati Pahuja
B5/6, 4599
Vasanat Kunj,
New Delhi-110070
communications@cdrn.org.in
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