NATURAL DIASTERS: MITIGATION AND MANAGEMENT

Definition: Webster's Dictionary defines a disaster as 'a grave occurrence having ruinous results'. WHO defines disaster as 'any occurrence that causes damage, economic destruction, loss of human life and deterioration in health and health services on a scale sufficient to warrant an extraordinary response from outside the affected community'.  Disasters are either natural, such as floods, droughts, cyclones and earthquakes, or man-made such as riots, conflicts, refugee situations and others like fire, epidemics, industrial accidents, and environmental fallouts.  In 1996, 40 million people were affected by disasters. During 1990-95, over 30 billion US$ was spent on humanitarian assistance.  On the average, 3 billion US$ is spent on disaster mitigation every year while the average annual global military spending is around 780 billion US dollars.  In South Asia, where poverty, deprivation and death due to disasters are a common feature of life, India remains the worst affected country.

(Source: Indian Disasters Report 2000, Oxford University Press)

Natural Hazards, Disasters and Vulnerability

Natural hazards become disasters when they impact on the vulnerabilities of an area/region and its people.  For example, cigarette smoking or drug-addiction is a health hazard, which can become a disaster if the vulnerable section of population is exposed to it freely.  The vulnerability of a region is a complex phenomenon; it is defined as the influence on it by heterogeneity of social, political and economic factors.  Natural on man-made hazards impact differently in different parts of the world depending upon vulnerability. 

The 1993, Latur earthquake of 6.2 M left over 10,000 dead and destroyed 200, 000 households.  However, much more powerful (7.5 M) Los Angeles earthquake of 1971 killed only 55 persons.  In India, with a fast growing population, the disaster mitigation and management must take into account the assessment of risk and vulnerability of the area under consideration.

India: A Country profile on Disasters

During the decade 1988-97, disasters in India affected over 24 million people and killed 5116 each year, on the average.  The economic loss amounted to 1884 million US $ per year.

In India, 11.2 percent area is flood-prone, 28 percent of total cultivable area is drought-prone and it is estimated that 57 percent of India is earthquake-prone.

Communal and caste riots pepper the country.  In India, the member of internally displaced people caused by developmental projects is probably 30 million today, according to Walter Fernandes of Indian Social Institute.  As for non-conventional disasters, the cost of road accidents is equivalent to 1 percent of a country's GNP.  The road transport system in India is about to crack.  The number of 4-wheeled vehicles is increasing at a tremendous rate and it has been forecast that 300 million vehicles will be on the roads by AD 2050.  The country, on the face of it, presents a dismal picture, so far as disaster management is concerned.

Major Disasters in India (1990-2000)

United Nations declared 1990-2000 as the International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction (IDNDR).  During this decade, India faced many major disasters, e.g., cyclones in Andhra Pradesh (1990 & 96) and Gujarat (1998), earthquakes in Uttarkashi (1991), Latur (1993), Jabhalpur (1997) and Bhuj (2001), landslide in Uttar Pradesh 91998), in addition to floods (1993-1999).  On an average 3000 lives have been lost besides destruction of public property worth 10,000 million rupees.

Keeping in view, the objectives of IDNDR and Yokohoma Declaration, Indian Govt has planned for disaster preparedness, mitigation and management at the national, state and district level by creating infrastructure, namely National Centre for Disaster Management (NCDM), Calamity Relief Fund (CRF) at state level and National Fund for calamity Relief (NFCR) at national level.  Forecasting and warning systems to deal with floods, cyclones, droughts and earthquakes are being upgraded.

Nuclear Radiation Disasters

Historical : Natural Radioactivity was discovered by Henry Becqueral and Marie Curie in 1897 and Artificial radioactivity by Frederic Joliot and Irene Curie in 1932. Sir James Chadrick discovered neutron in 1935. Nuclear fission was discovered by Otto Hahn, Strassman and Cise Mertner in 1938 in Germany, when they bombarded uranium with neutrons.  Enrico Fermi demonstrated the chain reaction in a nuclear pile (reactor) on 2^nd December 14942 in Chicago (USA) which led to the making of first Nuclear Bomb (Atomic Bomb) under the Manhattan Project at Los Alamos in the desert of New Mexico (USA). Two thousand million dollars was the budget estimate for Manhattan Project.  The test explosion of Atomic Bomb on 16^th July 1945 was a complete success.  The First Atomic Bomb was thrown / dropped on Hiroshima on 6^th August 1945 and the second on Nagasaki on 9^th August 1945.  The bomb had the power of 20,000 tons of TNT. Hiroshima nuclear explosion killed 92,133 Japanese and more than 100,000 were permanently injured and disfigured.  The disaster was worst in the recorded history of mankind.  The following lines appeared in an American newspaper:

The Atom Bomb is here to stay,

Most scientists agree.

Oh, the bomb is here to stay,

The question is, are we?

Russians prepared a Hydrogen Bomb (Fusion Device) in 1953 and tested it in the Arctic Ocean.  In March 1954, America exploded H-bomb at Bikimi and the nuclear race started in the world.  France, UK, China, India and Pakistan have also become members of the Nuclear Club.  It is a feared that Israel and North Korea have also developed nuclear bombs and some more countries are engaged in making bombs clandestinely.  We have Atomic, Hydrogen and Neutron bombs in the world.  Nuclear Warfare will be suicide for the human race!

Causes of Nuclear Disaster

a)     Sohock Wave: destroys all buildings within a radius of 15 Kms from Ground Zero.

b)    Hear Wave: burns all in its path.

c)     Nuclear Radiations: in the form of gamma rays and neutrons destroy all living beings.

d)    Radioactivity of fission products remains for many years after the nuclear explosion.

Radiation effects are of two types:

i.                    Somatic Effects, and

ii.                  Genetic Effects

Somatic effects affect the person exposed to radiation and a dose of 600 Roentgen (r) can prove fatal.  Genetic effects appear in the successive generations of exposed person. Radiation dose limits are defined for general public and occupational workers by ICRP (International Commission on Radiation Protection) set up under UN. Health Physics is a profession devoted to protection of man and his environment from unwarranted radiation exposure.