Govt’s six flagship schemes lacking on crisis management: Report on climate change

HT has reviewed a copy of the study titled Mainstreaming Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Change Adaptation in the National Flagship Programmes.

Six flagship programmes of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government lack capacity, awareness among stakeholders and compliance with measures related to the climate crisis and disaster management, according to a Union home ministry and UN Development Programme study.

The study notes there is a general agreement among experts that disaster risks are bound to increase in the coming decades on account of climate variability, climate crisis and environmental degradation. (AP file photo)

HT has reviewed a copy of the study titled Mainstreaming Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Change Adaptation in the National Flagship Programmes. Its findings relate to the extent to which the schemes measure up to Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) and Climate Change Adaption (CCA) considerations in terms of planning and whether they take have measures to address them.

The flagship programmes reviewed in the study include Smart Cities Mission, Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation, Swachh Bharat Mission, Heritage City Development and Augmentation Yojana, Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana (DDUGJY) and the Shyama Prasad Mukherji Rurban Mission.

In its review of the Smart Cities Mission, the report noted disaster risk needs to be taken into consideration for designing project activities and to include necessary risk mitigation measures to address disaster risk/impact while designing and implementing redevelopment initiatives.

“For example, while redeveloping the sewage system for a city, effective stormwater drainage needs to be considered as a critical component for managing urban flooding. Smart Cities Mission may consider taking up the issue of urban flooding as a priority and ensure that the infrastructure being added through the project helps in reducing this problem, as Smart Cities can only be smart if they are disaster-resilient,” it said.

The Smart Cities Mission envisions developing within 100 cities model areas based on development plans that include application of smart solutions to involve the use of technology, information and data

“High Tension (HT) Transmission Lines could be susceptible to damage during natural hazards viz high winds, cyclones, landslides, and earthquakes. Therefore, while setting up such HT lines, the hazard vulnerability profile of the local areas need to be considered and DRR on measures need to be integrated,” the study noted while referring to the DDUGJY

DDUGJY is designed to provide continuous power supply to rural India. Its covers works like installation of HT transmission lines, new distribution transformers, relocation of distribution transformers, creation of new substations, distribution transformers and a high voltage distribution system.

Infrastructure development could increase the exposure and vulnerability of people and assets if DRR measures are ignored, the report noted.

“Poorly conceived development planning could induce new risks and amplify existing risks. For example, unplanned or haphazard urbanization could increase vulnerability to the built environment and may also aggravate urban flooding,” it said.

The study notes there is a general agreement among experts that disaster risks are bound to increase in the coming decades on account of climate variability, climate crisis and environmental degradation.

Disasters largely result from the failures of development policies and practices that distort the trajectories of sustainable development, affecting the poorest sections the most, it noted.

“India has been experiencing a number of natural disasters particularly floods, cyclones, earthquakes and landslides due to its geographical location, size and rapid development. The government of India has been constantly working towards reducing the human, physical and economic losses caused due to disasters,’’ wrote Sanjiv Kumar Jindal, joint secretary, ministry of home affairs, in the report.

“The events such as Phailin cyclone, 2013, and Fani cyclone, 2019, have demonstrated that over the time period, the mortality due to natural disasters have been reducing significantly; however, infrastructure and economic losses are still on rise.”

He wrote mainstreaming DRR and CCA into development programmes is a key activity for reducing risk towards the new developments planned by the government. “It involves critically examining the government’s current or new development schemes from the perspective of reducing the exposure to the disasters and to minimise creation of potential new risk by incorporating suitable preventive measures.”

The Disaster Management Act mandates the concerned ministries at national and state levels to prepare disaster management plans and integrate DRR elements in the ongoing schemes.

“All development sectors must imbibe the principles of disaster risk management,” Modi said in his address at the Asian Ministerial Conference for Disaster Risk Reduction in 2016 as he outlined a 10-point agenda on DRR.