South Asia policy dialogue on disaster risk reduction begins

New Delhi, Aug 21 (UNI) Home Minister Shivraj Patil today said disaster risk reduction should be treated as an issue of development and not just of relief and rehabilitation.

Inaugurating the first-ever Regional Dialogue on Disaster Risk Reduction and Management in South Asia here, he said the government had decided to mainstream the disaster risk reduction into the process of development in every sector at all levels.

This was announced in the tenth Five Year Plan in 2002 and would be followed in a much more vigorous and effective manner in the eleventh Plan which is currently under formulation.

In this context, he pointed out that between two and 16 percent of the GDP of various South Asian countries was lost every year due to natural disasters.

''These are huge losses and cannot be accepted. As disasters have been eroding much of our hard earned gains of development and making it difficult to mobilise resources for education, public health and other social sector schemes, disaster losses must be prevented or mitigated and kept at the minimum.'' Citing studies which show that a dollar spent on mitigating disasters saves 5 dollars to be spent subsequently on relief and rehabilitation, the Home Minister said that it is more prudent and economical to invest in prevention, mitigation and preparedness.

Mr Patil said the huge loss of life and human sufferings caused by the mega disasters of recent decades in South Asian countries are not acceptable by any standards. There has been a complete shift in public policy for dealing with disasters from post disaster relief and rehabilitation to a holistic management of the entire disaster cycle.

He said the extent and degree of cooperation among the South Asian countries for disaster risk reduction and management have remained rather low compared to many other regions of the world.

''There is a great scope for increased cooperation and exchange of ideas and information in this regard,'' she added.

The objectives of the workshop are to assess and identify gaps in the existing disaster management policies in South Asian countries, review the current status and future possibilities of community-based disaster risk mitigation practices, ICT application and role of media in disaster management and discuss and develop a roadmap for responsive regional disaster risk reduction by improving planning, implementation and monitoring capacities of the South Asian countries.

The workshop is being organised by the National Institute of Disaster Management in collaboration with the UNDP South Asia, Practical Action, Sri Lanka and Duryog Nivaran.

Representatives from governments, community-based organisations and NGOs as well as mediapersons and ICT professionals working in the area of disaster risk mitigation and management from all the South Asian countries including Afghanistan are participating in the two-day workshop.

UNI SH PA BD2004