Dehradun: A state level one-day seminar was organized on disaster management at a local hotel in Dehradun. In the seminar, “Disaster Risk Assessment Data Base” was launched by Finance Minister Mr. Prakash Pant. Finance Minister asked to lay special emphasis on the important points of disaster management, which includes mitigation, rehabilitation, disaster risk, recovery. He said that the disaster cannot be prevented, but efforts can be made to minimize it. He said that all the departments of the state will be connected to this, keeping in mind the construction works in the most sensitive areas, implementation work can be done. He said that even after heavy rain, we have succeeded in preventing human loss of lives to a great extent, which has been possible due to the preparedness of disaster management in the state. He said that in order to prevent unplanned construction, Disaster Risk Data Base will be included in the action plan of all the departments, which will help in disaster mitigation.
Secretary Disaster Management Amit Singh Negi said that under the Disaster Risk Assessment Data Base, sensitive and highly sensitive places have been identified for earthquake, landslide and other natural calamities, according to which the Risk Data Base has been prepared, which is used in the government’s future policies. He said that this is a great step to move towards the disaster risk and mitigation.
Member NDMA Government of India, Kamal Kishore and Executive Director, NIDM, Government of India, Anil Kumar also expressed their views. They informed that Uttarakhand is the third state in the country, which has prepared the Disaster Risk Database in the context of the disaster, which will be very useful for the Uttarakhand Government and the people.
Participants were made aware of the study by team leader DHI, Singapore Joint Venture with Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand and ERN, Mexico Tom Brakut and about the data used in this study and was also told about the results achieved from them. They also shared about the challenges, which they had to face in completing the said study. Dr. Edwardo Rennesio of ERN Mexico, Dr. Manjul Kumar of AIT, Dr. Julian Oliver of DHI Singapore and Dr. M. L. Sharma of IIT also shared their views. Additional Secretary Disaster Management Savin Bansal, while apprising the utility of the study gave memorandum of thanks in the meeting.
Technical support and component of capacity development – the Disaster Risk Assessment of Uttarakhand Study, a World Bank funded, under the Uttarakhand government, under Uttarakhand Disaster Rebuilding Project programme implementation unit, is under the progress since May 2016, which is being done through firm DHI, Singapore in Joint Venture with Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand and ERN, Mexico.
Under this study, geographical information system platforms, in relation to various disasters such as earthquake, landslide and flood have been analyzed through a wide variety of models and detailed database of Uttarakhand. The above all data base, which is the Digital Risk Data Base (DRDB) is web based, through which it will be used in order to make quick decisions during the disaster in the state and for the preparation of the Decision Support System.
