Kerala is becoming increasingly prone to disasters. Unsteady monsoons and unwise land use have made the State prone to floods and land slips. The deterioration of environment is also leading to disasters on the health front also. However, the State is ill-prepared to meet such eventualities.
It is several years now after the State began preparing district disaster management plan. However, these are not yet ready. The State level management plan is at the draft level. Things has not progressed much with regard to turning the Institute of Land Management into an Institute for Disaster Management. It lacks a proper faculty and other facilities.
Though the Disaster Management Authority with the Chief Minister as chairman was formed two years ago, it met only a few times. The Chief Minister even appears to be unaware of the failure of the Authority to put in place any plans for prevention and management of disasters.
The Dam Safety Authority is also in a limbo though at least a few dams in the State needs its attention. Safety plans including dam break analysis and inundation studies are wanting in the case of major dams.
On the health front, diseases are spreading as the fundamental causes remain unaddressed despite improvement in health facilities especially in the private sector.
July 22, 2009 at 1:57 pm |
Natural disasters are physical. They often need manual labour to manage. And manual labour has to come from outside.
The government might now call for international tenders for consultancy on disasters. After the usual controversy, they might think of managing disasters once the consultants suggest more contracts.
July 23, 2009 at 3:24 pm |
And that is going to take time!