Globally, more people have died due to earthquakes in the first 17 years of the 21st century compared to the total deaths caused by the same factor in the entire 20th century. The Atomic Energy Regulatory Board member Harsh Kumar Gupta said this while delivering the keynote address on developing an earthquake resilient society on the concluding day of the national level workshop on the opportunities and challenges in disaster resilient infrastructure in the Himalaya organised by the Uttarakhand State Disaster Management Authority (USDMA).
Addressing the gathering on the occasion, Gupta said that Asia is the most hazard prone region in the world with about 68 per cent of the total deaths from disasters taking place in this continent. Considering the rapid rate of urbanisation about 55 per cent of the total population is expected to be living in cities by 2030. In such a scenario it is vital to mainstream disaster risk reduction in urban development works so that it becomes a common practice. Stating that earthquakes had caused more human deaths in the first 17 years of the 21st century than the deaths caused by quakes in the whole of 20th century, he stressed on the need for developing earthquake resilient society. Attempts at medium term forecast of earthquakes are useful to enable the people to prepare for the disaster. He also stressed on school sensitisation programmes in quake vulnerable states and on the upgradation and strengthening of district level disaster management plans.
On the concluding day of the workshop, various presentations were made on aspects related to disaster mitigation. Professior M L Sharma, from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Roorkee, informed about the status of current earthquake early warning system that was deployed in Uttarakhand and also emphasised on the expansion of this network. Professor Yogendra Singh informed the gathering about the extra care that needs to be taken for design of structures on mountain slopes and the implications of wrong design/construction practices. He also emphasised on requirement of very specific provisions for mountain regions of Himalaya close to seismic fault lines. In the second session, various risk transfer and mitigation tools were discussed and it was accepted unanimously that the option of popularising disaster insurance should be explored and taken seriously.
In the concluding session it was resolved that the state would work to the best of its capacities for ensuring disaster resilience with particular emphasis on earthquake resilience. The scientific and academic institutes both in the state as also at other places would collaborate and assist the state government in this effort. Better quantification of hazard, vulnerability and risk together with awareness of the same among the masses was acknowledged to be the key to risk reduction and the state government resolved to gear up its efforts in this direction.
Officials and representatives from PWD, Irrigation, Science and Technology, Forest, military, Government institutes, World Bank, Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology and Forest Research Institute among others were also present on the eve.