ARTICLE ON INDIAN RESPONSE
DMI
Reuters, New Delhi
Quake-prone India's lack of preparedness to deal with a Haiti-style
earthquake will result in a poor and chaotic response with tens of
thousands of casualties, the former U.N. chief responsible for
immediate international disaster response said on Friday.
Arjun Katoch, former head of the U.N.'s Disaster Assessment and
Coordination team (UNDAC) and the International Search and Rescue
Advisory Group (INSARAG), said the country did not meet even the basic
requirements for disaster response.
"When an earthquake of high magnitude strikes north India, as it
certainly will, we will suffer tens of thousands of casualties and our
response will be poor and chaotic," Katoch, an Indian national, told
AlertNet in an interview.
Northern India-which includes the capital New Delhi, a mega-
conurbation of 14.1 million people, and other major cities-and the
Himalayan region are one of the most seismically active zones in the
world. The region has an average of 6 to 8 earthquakes of around 4.0
magnitude per month and of 6.0 magnitude and above every 10 years,
according to the Indian Meteorological Department
India's rapid economic growth over the last decade has seen massive
unregulated urbanisation but emergency response preparations and
building standards have not kept up with the changing reality of such
changes.
"Construction standards across states like Utaranchal, Delhi, Utar
Pradesh, Bihar and Assam are substandard with very few buildings being
earthquake resistant," said Katoch, adding that key buildings such as
hospitals and fire stations needed to be updated to make them safer.
"The area is densely populated and casualties from a shallow
earthquake of magnitude 7 as in Haiti would be likely to run into the
hundreds of thousands." The Jan 12 earthquake in Haiti killed more
than 200,000 people and left over one million homeless. In the last
two decades, India has experienced two devastating earthquakes.
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake tore threw the Latur district in
Maharashtra in 1993, killing almost 8,000 people and injuring around
30,000. Eight years later, Kutch in Gujarat was hit by a more powerful
quake measuring 7.9 on the Richter scale, killing around 20,000 people
and injuring 167,000 people.
Key emergency responders are badly equipped to deal with such
disasters, said Katoch. Fire brigades-the primary responders in
disasters-are poorly funded making them one of the most "outdated, ill-
equipped and neglected" institutions in the country, said Katoch, and
most fire services are headed by police who have no experience and
litle interest in disaster response.
India also does not have any urban search and rescue teams, which meet
the required U.N. standards, to remove people from collapsed
structures.
Katoch said such teams were crucial and when deployed in Haiti after
the quake they rescued over 130 people from collapsed buildings.
Moreover, the armed forces-which are the mainstay of disaster response
in many countries-need to be given a greater role in decision making
process on disaster management
"The Indian Ocean tsunami, Pakistan earthquake, Haiti and now Chile
are examples of the centrality of the armed forces in response, and to
keep the Indian armed forces away from response preparedness planning
is the height of folly," he said.
NO POWER
Katoch criticised the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA),
which he said lacked the power and resources to carry out its mandate
with even the smallest decisions requiring approval from the Ministry
of Home Affairs. Most of the NDMA's senior officials lacked disaster
management experience, he said, adding that the authority was
basically "reduced to preparing guidelines that few read or implement"
He said it was essential that the NDMA be allowed to function on its
own with a professional team of experts who have full authority and
resources or it should be brought under the mandate of the home
ministry - rather than having shared accountability which left no one
responsible.
"As things stand, if an earthquake as in Haiti happened here, our
response would certainly be better, but not by very much," he said.
"This is not because we lack experience or resources but because
bureaucracy, turf issues and an unprofessional management approach
prevent us from developing an integrated and professional system for
response to disasters."
"The spread of mobile phones with cameras and exposure through new
media sites such as Facebook and Twiter will ensure that this poor
response is seen by the world and this has the potential to undermine
the legitimacy of government"
Katoch, who retired as head of UNDAC and INSARAG last December,
oversaw the international response to over 140 disasters around the
world for more than 10 years.