NDMA Organizes National Workshop of Secretaries of Disaster Management

Press Information Bureau
Government of India
Ministry of Home Affairs

18-April-2012 18:37 IST

NDMA Organizes National Workshop of Secretaries of Disaster Management

The National Workshop of Principal Secretaries/ Secretaries of Disaster Management Department of all States/ UTs on Best Practices in Disaster Management and Role of Science and Technology in Early Warning and Forecasting of Disasters was held in New Delhi today. Speaking on the occasion, Vice Chairman, NDMA Shri Shashidhar Reddy said that we should stop thinking in terms of incremental increases when it comes to upgrading our observational capabilities. We need to assess our final requirements, set a deadline and start working backward. Special efforts should be made to achieve this. We have excellent technical capability and I am sure that we can find the necessary funds.

Shri Reddy also emphasized upon the need for strengthening the State Remote Sensing Application Centres for providing better Decision Support System at the local levels. The National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC) should look into the working of the State Centres in the context of local vulnerabilities and make recommendations to bring them on par with the better Centres like in Andhra Pradesh. Shri Reddy wanted them to suggest the kind of infrastructure, equipment and man-power to achieve this so that it can be taken up with the States, which will have to provide necessary funds for this purpose.

Capacity building is also one of the most important subjects. NDMA is in the process of revising the guidelines for National Institute of Disaster Management (NIDM) which is responsible for training and capacity building in disaster management with focus largely on Training of Trainers. He said the NDMA will seriously consider the suggestions made during this workshop about the setting up State Institute of Disaster Management by the States as done in some States like Uttar Pradesh.

Lauding the role of NDRF, he called upon the States to focus on raising State Disaster Response Force for providing rescue and relief locally and assured all assistance for training. He said that the Government of India has decided to make National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) a stand-alone dedicated force which is not to be deployed for any other duties like law & order and election duties, etc. Shri Reddy wanted the officials to impress upon their State Governments to expedite the process of formation of State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) wherever not been done so far and also suggested that SDRF should also remain a dedicated force without being given any other duties like the NDRF. Like the NDRF, SDRF can also be involved in community sensitization which will go a long way in preparing the communities to deal with disasters. Concerted efforts in this direction will have a tremendous impact on Community Based Disaster Preparedness over the next few years.

Source:- http://www.cdrn.org.in/show.detail.asp?id=23636

FedEx Express Delivers Relief Supplies to Sikkim Earthquake Victims

November 9, 2011 by admin
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FedEx Express, a subsidiary of FedEx Corp, has delivered 1,000 shelter tool kits to earthquake victims in Sikkim. The initiative to offer shelter relief to affected families was organised in collaboration with the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) and the Indian Red Cross Society (IRCS).

FedEx Express transported the aid weighing approximately 25,000 pounds from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to Delhi, India using the A310 aircraft. The kits were delivered to the IRCS representatives in Sikkim by a special ground delivery.

The relief aid of 1,000 shelter toolkits included tools and hardware that will enable victims and aid workers to help repair and reconstruct damaged and destroyed homes. The shelter kits were provided to the IRCS by the IFRC, and funded by the international organization’s Disaster Relief Emergency Fund (DREF).

“The damage caused by the September earthquake in the Himalayan region necessitated an immediate humanitarian response. FedEx is honored to offer its humble support to victims of Sikkim. By delivering the shelter tool kits to affected families in the region, we stand in solidarity with our trusted partners, India Red Cross Society and the IFRC, as they honorably assist the community’s reconstruction process,” said Kenneth F. Koval, vice president, Operations, FedEx Express India.

“The earthquake in the Himalayan region has damaged and destroyed homes across four countries creating an emergency situation in hard-to-access regions,” said John Roche, Head of the IFRC’s India office. “Thanks to the assistance of FedEx, these shelter tool kits will help many who have been left homeless in Sikkim rebuild their lives.”

“The families in Sikkim needed urgent assistance in a difficult situation and FedEx is glad that we can leverage our infrastructure and network to provide them speedy access to these much-needed relief supplies,” said Ramesh Kumar Singam, managing director, Federal Express Malaysia and Brunei.

FedEx Express maintains a longstanding commitment to disaster relief. The company donated more than five million pounds (approximately 2,300 tons) of charitable shipping last year alone, equivalent to 87 Boeing 757 aircraft of donated aid.

Source:- http://www.csrdigest.com/2011/11/fedex-express-delivers-relief-supplies-to-sikkim-earthquake-victims/

Children Make-up a Quarter of Southeast Asian Flood Victims

27/10/2011 – Flooding has affected eight million people and killed 800 in Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos and the Philippines. A quarter of these deaths have been children.

As flooding inundates parts of Thailand, it hasn’t taken long for children to be swept up and carried away by the surging waters. Current floods in Thailand are the worst in decades and three-quarters of children in Asia have never learned how to swim – a killer combination.

To date, children account for about a quarter of the 800 flood-related casualties reported since July in Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos and the Philippines, says the United Nations (UN). It is easy for children to wander out of their parents’ sight and fall into the canals and streams in their neighbourhoods or slip into the floodwaters surrounding their houses, especially after dark.

"It doesn't take very long for a child to slip away from an already harried mother or older sibling who are trying to schlep all the belongings. It takes only two or three minutes for a child to drown,” said Michael Linnan of the US-based Alliance for Safe Children in Bangkok to TIME magazine.

In all, the flooding has affected eight million people in Southeast Asia. More than 50 Thai children and 80 Cambodian children have died. In the Mekong Delta of Vietnam, the overwhelming majority of fatalities reported since August (49 out of 57) have been children. Flooding in Myanmar has also been severe, but no official estimates on child casualties have been published. Still, the scale of the floods indicates shortcomings in disaster risk and reduction planning, says the UN.

More than 370 people have been killed in Thailand alone; but worst of the flooding is expected to hit the Bangkok region tonight. Authorities have warned all 50 districts to be on the alert and the government has begun evacuating people in at-risk regions. Vulnerable groups include people living in some areas of Bangkok and nearby provinces, particularly those living in one-story houses close to rivers and the canals. A five-day holiday (ending October 31st) has been designated for the northern and central provinces, giving them adequate time to prepare for the floods.

“Too much preparation is indeed better than too little,” said Natapanu Nopakun, spokesperson for the government’s Flood Relief Operations Command.

Earlier this week, the head of the UN’s Bangkok office for Disaster Risk Reduction,

Jerry Velasquez, expressed his concern about “the high numbers of children dying in these floods, which was a concern raised by children themselves when over 600 were interviewed for the new Children’s Charter on Disaster Risk Reduction.” The charter was the focus of this month’s International Disaster Reduction Day.

Every year, 240,000 children aged 17 and under drown because most have never learned to swim – roughly the same number that died in the 2004 Asian Tsunami. These deaths receive much less media attention, given that they build up slowly, on a day-to-day basis without the same shock value as a major humanitarian disaster.

The actual number of drowning deaths may be higher than official figures. About 15-25 per cent of such deaths go unreported, given that death certificates aren’t mandatory.

Half of child drowning deaths occur among children under the age of five who are too young to learn to swim. But, community education and social services have proved useful. For example, research has found that village day care centres can help reduce drowning deaths by 80 per cent.

Read the complete document at :- http://cdrn.org.in/show.detail.asp?id=22725

Gogoi anounces Rs. 100-crore package for flood-hit Dhemaji

SUSHANTA TALUKDAR

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Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi on Tuesday announced a Rs. 100-crore package for the flood-hit Dhemaji district. The announcement came during a tour of the district by Mr. Gogoi for a first-hand assessment of the devastation by flood in the backward district. He announced this while talking to the flood-affected people of the district, at Silapathar and Sisiborgaon.

The Chief Minister also announced the ex-gratia of Rs. one lakh to the kin of each of those killed in the flood. He said Rs. 25,000 would be given to the families whose concrete houses have been damaged by flood waters, and Rs. 10,000 to the families whose kutcha houses have been damaged. Besides, the State government would also provide financial assistance to compensate for the loss of livestock and special assistance to students affected by flood.

Later, in a meeting with high officials of the district administration, North East Frontier Railways, Border Roads Organisation, Mr. Gogoi directed the concerned departments to initiate measures to reverse the course of River Gai which caused the devastation, and to restore communication network in the district. He also instructed the district administration to continue providing relief materials to the affected people.

The Northeast Frontier Railway, with support from the Railway Board, has dispatched relief materials to the flood-affected people of Dhemaji and North Lakshimpur district on Tuesday by road to elevate their sufferings.

The materials sent include about 1,700 dhotis, 1,600 sarees, 1,000 children's clothes, and 1,100 polythene sheets for protection from rain.

The materials are being handed over to the district authorities for further disbursement, stated an official release issued by chief public relations officer, N.F. Railway, S. Hajong.

Source:- http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/article2390769.ece

Rain toll climbs to 29 in Bengal

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RAIN HAVOC: Villagers anxiously watching the erosion caused by the Damodar river in Burdwan district of West Bengal on Wednesday. – PHOTO: PTI

With two more deaths, the toll in rain-related mishaps across West Bengal rose to 29 on Wednesday even as some major rivers continued to flow above the danger mark. Altogether 26 lakh people in 14 districts have been affected by the heavy rain pounding the State for a week now and still continuing sporadically.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee announced after a Cabinet meeting that her government would give compensation to people who had lost their shelter in this calamity.

“While Rs.10,000 will be given for each house damaged totally, Rs.2,000 will be given for rebuilding partially damaged houses,” she said. Well over 166,200 houses have been damaged so far.

State Water Resources Minister Manas Bhunia alleged on Wednesday that lack of maintenance during the long years of Left Front rule had weakened the embankments and breaches were appearing regularly. He said his departmental engineers are monitoring the situation on an hourly basis.

Pointing that Ms. Banerjee had constituted a State Flood Commission to find out ways to control the devastation caused by floods, he said a meeting of the Commission had already been held where several ideas were discussed to limit the impact of the floods. Dr. Bhunia is the chairperson of the Commission.

District administrations have been asked to keep relief and rescue teams ready in case of breaches, Irrigation Secretary A. Chatterjee said, adding that District Magistrates have also been asked to move people from low-lying areas

He said discharge of water from different barrages was reducing gradually. The Damodar Valley Corporation had discharged 85,000 cusecs of water, the Durgapur barrage 90,000 cusecs and the Kangsabati barrage 15,000 cusecs.