Disaster resilience: India is striding towards global fora as a nation with many potentialities

  

Talking about disaster management in the country has performed 2 decades of mind boggling facts and figures. We are in the rare zone of defense, if we say anything note worthy on the disaster resilience index.  When taking into account of our disaster resilience, we are somewhat contended with more “blessed” status than many other countries, be it in the case of facing earthquake, Tsunami, flood, landslides, to name a few of the most events that counted these days as Natural origin, because no Natural event is termed as "disaster". They are called "hazards". It's rather our inappropriateness to account for the impact that our establishments are not able to cope with up and finally "hazard" turns to "disaster". Even urban floods are taking serious tolls due to our failure/incapacity to prepare and anticipate the aftermath of ill planned habitations mushrooming around. 

We have established several national and state level organisations, formed well trained dedicated disaster response teams that even effectively helped Japan (2011) and Nepal (2015), conducted several conferences/seminars, works...trained several officials about the preparation of DM plans and formation of Emergency Operation Centres (EOC), initiated several projects and mitigation programs that trained teachers, engineers, architects, opened up higher education  hubs to prepare disaster managers for the country and even prepared several Post Disaster Need Assessment (PDNA) documents for ascertaining budgetary support for reconstruction works.  The extent of research works in our R&D hubs are mostly confined to establishing instruments, such as seismometers, diff. GPS, Automated weather station, data Buoy.. and taking data for rightful interpretation, which most often than not; are effectively interpreted for societal use. Some of these areas, such as Local weather forecasting in mobile apps, earthquake early warning, warning for hail storm and ground penetrating thunder bolts, warning for flash floods or heavy rain fall…are yet to catch attention of our scientific communities.

In order to harness societal gains in some of the most important areas as above, let’s not count on how many (costly) devices we have bought or yet to be deployed or awaited for Govt.’s nod for fund release. While country's integrity is very important, it's also important to work in synergy, specially in science and technology domain. Taking this into consideration, following aspects may be crucial:

1. Let's us not decorate any more our labs or department teaming with costly equipment or commercial softwares, which are just procured during project period and their usages end with the project reporting or after gaining of the project associate and his coveted research degree, if any. 
2. Let us not defuse our energy in blaming or criticizing other fellow country men or colleagues, for what they are not upto. However, constructive criticism is always welcome in research domain and nurturing this culture in our  context often losing it sheen in many institutes of the country.
3. Let's not work in compartments and procure same costly equipment from abroad for the sake of either having them in many research labs or using them repeatedly to prove the science of the Nature, which is already understood. Innovations and recreation of Nature's event in labs are the basic foundation of research. 

Let these programs are empathized more exclusively than any other scientific charm we continue to enjoy. Because, “right to have warning information” of the events mentioned above are socially relevant and in order to acclaim those for the society is more important than our natural instinct for loving children or supporting their education. 

Let it be our national mission to have disaster resilience society altogether….because, whatever items mentioned here have already been achieved for societal use elsewhere in the world. Why shall we lag behind!

Health issues in disaster management: a paradigm shift

by

Prof. Chandan Ghosh, NIDM, New Delhi

All natural disasters are unique in that each affected region of the world has different social, economic, and health backgrounds. Some similarities exist, however, among the health effects of different natural as well as man-made disasters, can ensure that health and emergency medical relief and limited resources are to be well managed.

Whether it's Louisiana hit by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, or Indian Ocean rim countries struck by the Tsunami in 2004, Sichuan earthquake in 2008, Haiti Earthquake in 2010 (Fig. 1) or Japan hit by earthquake-Tsunami in 2011 or more recently Nepal-India hit by earthquake in April-May 2015;  communities that suffer from such disasters also suffer from the side effects of the disaster long after the cameras have stopped rolling and the aid comes to a halt. 

Fig. 1: Health care emergencies due to Haiti (2010) earthquake have been  out of all limitations resulting in the complete collapse of the system and even  6 years after the earthquake, integrated efforts for the restoration of health care system are the greatest challenge, which is very significant on humanitorian grounds

Fig. 2: Emergency health care by a functional medical hospital system due to 2008 Sichuan earthquake, is not always guaranteed. However, it’s always preferred to have contingency arrangement for such emergencies.

 Some of the greatest challenges these people undergo is not the natural disaster itself but the residual problems stemming from the disaster, namely the long-term health problems kindled from the calamity, recovering from the loss and damages and setting development agenda back to anvil. The long-term health conditions typically addressed during the redevelopment phase include mental and psychological issues, vaccinating and eliminating the outbreak of communicable diseases like cholera, malaria, and measles and reinstating the infrastructure of the health services system. Mental health problems have proven to be some of the most common side effects of natural disasters. The great loss and devastation disasters incur makes mental health problems like post-traumatic stress disorder and depression, rampant among survivors of these horrific acts of nature. Disasters, therefore, cause a significant amount of stress; the death of loved ones can be particularly traumatic but also the loss of jobs, material goods and livelihoods.

Fig. 3: Having facilities for differently abled persons at public places is  mandatory but putting them in proper order is an unsettled socio-cultural dispute in many countries. If these are in place as seen in the photo, they can be used for positioning emergency vehicles during disaster response and operation.

Emphasis is required into a number of important areas in which, public health can contribute to making overall disaster management more effective and conducive to people affected by the disaster.  Some of the more important sudden impact of natural disasters and potential future threats (e.g., intentional or deliberately released biologic agents)  are required for effective emergency medical and public health response. The importance of protecting health infrastructure facilities and maintaining uninterrupted emergency medical services to the injured ones shall needs to be addressed upon. Some of the structural and non-structural measures to hospital safety, including state of the art of facilitating onsite establishment of field hospitals must be included along with case studies. 

Fig. 4: Caring for the injured (Haiti Earthquake 2010) ones in huge no. was not possible in Haiti due to poor economic status and inadequate health care facilities in general. Even deploying medical team thru’ international agencies were  extremely challenging.

Buildings not constructed as per Code shall face the ultimate truth during earthquake...

Building constructions are everybody's share of concerns cum interests sans proper expertise. It may be noted that every municipal authorities in the country has dedicated agencies/team/section to look after the building plan sanctioning, registration, construction supervision, issuing of completion certificate, etc. Some of the basic requirements are explained below:

Fig. 1: Despite extensive earthquake resistance measures following 1999 Chi-Chi earthquakes in Taiwan, the Tainan earthquake on Feb 6, 2016 (M6.4) has made inroads to the weakness ingrained in such buildings, resulting that the entire building is to be demolished

1) What role the Civic authority is suppose to play for those unauthorised constructions (recognition of the terms such as Unauthorised, unauthorised-regularised, illegal, irregular, JJ, urban village, … in engineering parlance and earthquake safety!) in designated areas of a city (we know of many urban Villages, colonies,.. where building constructions rule is not admissible) that become “regularised” following some executive order in terms of their safety from earthquakes or any other hazards?

2.            Any documented example/video/publication of good quality construction as per  code so far carried out by any agency/person(Engineer)/ organisation in the country that provide warranty in terms of acceptable (safe) performance against earthquake or any other external hazards? 

                It may be noted that many people working at the construction site often says, they are adding extra cement or Steel to accomplish more safety than design permits. Use of Ready Mix Concrete is made compulsory in many important construction sites. Yet taking into account of extra safety factors during construction amounts to "ignorance" of the system performance. Therefore, if someone conjectures that many Heritage structures have withstood the impact of last so many earthquakes, we can't not justify much our understanding of the subject matter as we are still "ignorant" about the performance of such structures. 

Fig. 2: Buildings constructed in this manners are subjected to severe damages, due to wrong geometry and poor quality. During earthquake if nothing goes wrong, then we can assume that it's lucky or rather we would say resonant frequency conditions did not occur. But any earthquake waves of Intensity V and higher would definitely impact the such buildings because of irregular geometry.

3.            What role the civic agencies are suppose to play while giving occupancy certificates irrespective of the  no. of certificates to be signed by owner, contractor, structural engineer, architect… as per TCPO Building Bye Laws (guideline) 2004 that was issued to all state govt. and UTs by Govt? What are the engineers lookout for the authenticity of their professional zeal in such situation, where accountability is simply based on certificates signed without much of the ground verification/facts on record?

             There are no. agencies coming up in India, who are getting several assignments for the important establishments such as Embassies, Monuments, Heritage building, Communication towers, Hospitals, schools etc. to provide safety certificates! While country has several sources of hiring/procuring instruments such as LiDAR, GPR, Total Stations, NDTs, etc., the expertise for the systematic integration/interpretation of such data from the source are highly limited. Therefore, gaining a certificate from many such agencies are as easy as taking risk insurance from few agencies coming up in the country.   

Fig. 3: Many such important authorised constructions are sometimes motivated by the amount of steel or cement bags used, rather than proper engineering design requirements. This is an utter mismanagement in the willful application of design principles defined in codes. In such construction neither construction methodology is properly followed nor the quality aspects taken care of. As construction is robust and sturdy for a 3 storey building, earthquake of moderate intensities may not impact much due to ambient frequency mismatch. But earthquake resistant design principles are just enough to cater earthquakes historically frequented in the area.

4.            When majority of the constructions even in authorised areas of a city are going in such manner,  where M20 grade concrete or Fe500, grade 53 cement, water quality and skill workmanship etc. are not feasible, what kind of warranty or certificate of occupancy on the fate of such constructed facilities is supposed to be given by civic authority or expected from structural engineers in-charge after the lawful completion of the same as per extant rule in the city?

         It's really precarious condition that underlie in the building construction. In one side, quality materials as per code is not available in the market, more so the quality works manship. Then where is the fate of earthquake resistance measures meant by Code?

Fig.4: As it is often recommended that ductile detailing is more important than providing more no. of steel rods and cement. It's usually found in majority of construction sites that the stirrups as shown in red color are not usually incorporated due to ignorance or site related problems of unacceptable dimensions. However, Codes always highlight such aspects, and it must not cost anything as seen here.

5. While buildings in the commercial areas are having willful yet functional violation of the safety norms at everyone's envy to add/modify some portions of the fateful establishment,, any mishap due to natural or man made events (say heavy rains, hailstorm, flood...fire..bomb blast..), becomes a responsibility of the state/administration/nation. Emergency Preparedness usually takes back seat because, no one is suppose to be careful enough. Because, every one thinks all living in this fashion (see fig. below) are either callous or sensible enough to restore all faith in  the Almighty. ..They are contended with the living standards as they are absent for more than few decades already and so nothing unexpected will happen to them... But caring life and properties are the fundamental aspects of healthy living..Not caring now does not stop us sharing concerns of unhealthy status of built environment and taking timely preparedness drills/actions..

Fig. 5: Buildings of unknown shape and dimensions, carrying so much of nonstructural components but having lots of brisk commercial activities and demands...creates mind boggling circumstance for the civic authority to implement rules and carry out the orders as written in codes/building bye-laws. Therefore, enforcement/implementation aspects are fated to social geo-dynamics, where earthquake safety or even safety of human life from pollution, are not counted much.

Earthquakes are no longer new to us but our temperament has to change in adopting principles defined in the codes/manuals/guidelines under the careful supervision of experts....