2005 will go down in our memory as the year we faced the maximum number of natural calamities
By S S Jeevan
The images were stark and stunning - gushing waters entering houses. Streets flooded. Electricity cut off. Carcasses floating around. Angry residents screaming for help. People frantically trying to reach makeshift relief shelters. A non-existent state machinery. And stampedes at relief centres. You could be forgiven for imagining that this is a scene from a flood-ravaged developing country. But this was Katrina - one of the most powerful hurricanes to hit the US in a very long time. The hurricane not only made the world’s only superpower look like a helpless Third World country, but it was also a wake up call to the world that something is terribly wrong with Mother Nature.
2005 will be best remembered as the year of disasters. Beginning with the heart-wrenching images of last year’s tsunami, disasters broke all geographical barriers this year - earthquakes in Kashmir, Iran and Indonesia, hurricanes in USA and Brazil, floods in Mumbai, Chennai and Bangalore and unprecedented torrential rains in China. The mayhem broke all barriers, both for developed as well as developing countries. If 1998 was the hottest year, 2005 was the costliest ever, with over US$ 200 billion dollars in economic losses as a result of weather-related natural disasters. This year’s record onslaught of disasters seems to corroborate what scientists have been saying for some time now: destructive weather patterns of recent years are due to climate change. And this could well be just the beginning.
Climate chaos
Earlier this year the scientific journal Nature said that hurricanes in the Atlantic and North Pacific had roughly doubled over 30 years. Scientific analysis also shows that storms have become more intense in the past several decades. Recently Science reported that the frequency of hurricanes had significantly increased over the past 35 years - the number of Category 4 and 5 hurricanes, and the most powerful ones, had increased by over 80 percent over that period.
The situation was no different in India: Mumbai recorded 944 mm of rain in 24 hours, the greatest and most intense spell of rainfall ever recorded in India. Chennai is witnessing its worst floods in the last 25 years. And according to the United Nations Environment Programme, the number of tropical storms in 2005 surpassed all records - there have been 26 storms, five more than the previous record of 21. Of the 26, 16 reached hurricane force. Research across the world reveals that rapid urbanisation - and the huge amounts of carbon dioxide and greenhouse gases that come with it - are responsible for this situation. In fact, Katrina and other hurricanes have belatedly galvanised the US public towards the burning issue of global warming, since the country is the biggest stumbling block towards ratifying the Kyoto Protocol, a global treaty to arrest greenhouse gas emissions.
Triggering disasters
Scientists also believe that apart from climate change, increasing population and rapid development, especially in vulnerable areas, may be fuelling this crisis. For instance, one reason being cited for the flood devastation this year in Tamil Nadu is that of encroachment of catchment areas such as ponds and tanks.
According to one estimate, nearly 3,000 tanks in the state have been lost over the years, and now exist only on government records. The Madurai corporation office, for example, is located in a tank area. Such water bodies would not only have stored water, but also prevented large-scale flooding. According to a study conducted by Dhan, an organisation working towards regenerating water bodies throughout South India, many tanks have gone completely defunct due to various reasons such as heavy siltation, urbanisation and encroachments resulting in extremely poor storage capacity.
In some cases, tanks have been destroyed due to effluent discharge from tanneries and factories. It is well known that tanks are the most important sources for storage of rainwater; they retain ground water, besides preventing large-scale flooding. ‘‘Unplanned development, especially in vulnerable areas has turned natural disasters into major calamities resulting in heavy loss of life and property,’’ says Dhan’s executive director, M P Vasimalai.
Coping with calamities
Experts say that climate change is a larger problem that would require sincere and long-term commitments from rich countries to reduce carbon emissions. But in the short run, disaster preparedness and disaster management need urgent attention from governments, especially in developing countries. Because it is mostly the poor people, living downstream, who face the wrath of every natural calamity. Whether it was the floods in New Orleans or the earthquake in Kashmir, the deprived are the worst affected, even when it comes to relief - the death of over 40 flood-affected people at a relief centre in Chennai last week is a powerful reminder to this reality.
Environmentalist Anil Agarwal once said, ‘‘Disasters come and go but our government has become a permanent disaster.’’ It is not that India doesn’t have the scientific expertise to predict, prepare and contain a natural disaster. Just that there is a shocking lack of political will among governments to implement policy decisions. ‘‘We need to empower the stakeholders to face every disaster and minimise the response time. A vulnerability map must to be prepared for disaster-prone regions,’’ adds Vasimalai. Moreover, developmental planning must take into account simple logic like the fact that earthquakes don’t kill, buildings do. And town planners must make earthquakes less devastating. Just like protecting the vanishing mangroves in South India could have, to some extent, reduced the impact of the tsunami.
We also need to rethink whether diluting the coastal regulation zone rules for construction work can become counter-productive, as the threat of a future tsunami looms large over South Asia. In a year dominated by unending news of disasters, it was but appropriate that Parliament passed the Disaster Management Bill, 2005. Among other things, the bill mandates the setting up of a National Disaster Management Authority under the Chairmanship of the Prime Minister. But the success of its implementation can only be gauged when the next calamity strikes.
(New Indian Express, December 25, 2005)
No comments:
Post a Comment