New Delhi, December 8, 2011: A report launched yesterday in New Delhi highlights how preventive measures could save lives and reduce damage from natural hazards. This is particularly important to India. The country’s growing cities will expose more people and property to hazards, with an estimated 200 million city dwellers likely to be exposed to storms and earthquakes by 2050? almost three times more than the estimated 70 million today.
But these projections do not have to translate into greater loss of life and increased property damage, according to the World Bank-United Nations Report, "Natural Hazards, UnNatural Disasters: the Economics of Effective Prevention. Prevention measures can lower vulnerability to natural hazards such as earthquakes, storms, floods and droughts.
“A central message of the report is that “prevention pays, but you don’t always have to pay more for prevention,” said Mahmoud Mohieldin, World Bank Managing Director, “As we say in our report, timely information about what and where the hazard risks are, incentives that encourage investments in prevention, and a reliable and accessible infrastructure can help ensure that natural hazards do not lead to loss of valuable life and property”.
According to the Ministry of Home Affairs, in India, annual losses from natural hazards have more than tripled over the last three decades, with cumulative losses over this period estimated at over $48 billion. Nearly 500 million citizens, across rural and urban India, have been affected by floods alone during this period.
The Natural Hazards UnNatural Disasters report cites cost-effective preventive measures that include greater access to hazard-related information and regulatory changes to remove distortions, such as abolishing rent and price controls and providing secure titles to encourage better repair and upkeep of buildings. In Mumbai, for example, where rent controls were pervasive, property owners often neglected maintenance, causing buildings to collapse during rains. Policies that provide secure ownership of property would also serve as incentive for owners to invest in safer construction and better maintenance.
The report also proposes cost-effective, hazard-specific infrastructure: for example, schools that double as cyclone shelters or roadways that double as drains. Sometimes increased spending is warranted—for example to develop and maintain early warning systems—and “even modest increases, and greater sharing of data internationally, can have enormous benefits”, says the report. Evidence from Pune shows that, because they often lack transportation, poor households prefer to have easy access to jobs, even though this may imply living in slums on river banks prone to flooding or on hilltops subject to mudslides.
"Disaster prevention is increasingly becoming a priority in India" said Roberto Zagha, World Bank Country Director, India. "The establishment of the National Disaster Management Authority at the centre, state and district level, was an important step towards prevention. By providing the correct incentives and infrastructure support, across sectors, millions of lives could be saved.”
Looking ahead, the report notes that, in addition to growing cities, a changing climate will shape the disaster prevention landscape. By 2100, even without climate change, damages from weather-related hazards may triple to US$1 billion annually and factoring in climate change could push costs even higher, says Natural Hazards.
“The Report suggests that measures that help sustain development also help increase disaster prevention,” said Apurva Sanghi, World Bank Senior Economist and the report’s Task Team Leader. “For example investments in health or education seemingly have little to do with disaster prevention, but healthy and literate societies are also more resilient to disasters. Vice versa, disaster prevention sustains the pay-offs from other interventions. Preventing disasters is as much about development as development is about preventing disasters".
The World Bank support to Government of India in Disaster and Risk Mitigation Projects
The World Bank is engaged in three disaster risk management projects in India. While the National Cyclone Risk Mitigation Project (NCRMP) is the first completely “ex-ante” risk mitigation project in India, the other two projects - the Emergency Tsunami Reconstruction Project (ETRP) and the Bihar Kosi Flood Recovery Project (BKFRP) - also have significant focus on risk reduction.
1) Emergency Tsunami Reconstruction Project (US$ 410 million). The ETRP is a project being implemented in Tamil Nadu. It has evolved from a post-disaster reconstruction to a forward looking risk reduction project that focuses on reducing the vulnerability of coastal communities through construction of permanent shelters, multi-hazard early warning systems, community based disaster risk management and livelihoods strengthening.
Closing date: December 31, 2011
2) National Cyclone Risk Mitigation Project – Phase 1 (US$ 255 million). The NCRMP Phase I is focusing on reducing the vulnerability of coastal areas to cyclones and related hazards through construction of cyclone shelters, strengthening coastal embankments, “last-mile-connectivity” early warning systems and capacity strengthening of government institutions to better manage disasters. The first phase is being implemented in the States of Orissa and Andhra Pradesh.
Closing date: October 31, 2015
3) Bihar Kosi Flood Recovery Project (US$ 220 million). The BKFRP is a flood recovery project focusing on the three most-affected districts in Bihar following the Kosi floods in September 2008. The project is focusing on reconstruction of 100,000 houses, construction of roads and bridges, strengthening livelihoods and development of a comprehensive flood management plan for the entire state of Bihar.
Closing date: September 14, 2014
4) Bihar Flood Management and Information Systems (non-lending Technical Assistance). The Bank along with the Department for International Development (DFID) is providing technical support to the Government of Bihar for flood forecasting and management to help the state move from merely responding to a disaster to improved disaster preparedness.
Closing date: December 31, 2012
Projects under Preparation
1) Bihar Multi Sectoral Project. The follow-on project in Bihar will predominantly focus on implementing findings from the flood management plan developed under the BKFRP, strengthening the agriculture sector as well as other sectoral interventions in the state.
2) National Cyclone Risk Mitigation project (II). The Second phase of the NCRMP will focus on the states of West Bengal, Gujarat, Kerala and Maharashtra. Project components will be similar to the ones implemented under Phase I.
