Nepal shaken, Kochi not stirred yet

City yet to wake up to the challenges posed by disasters

May 03, 2015 12:00 am | Updated 09:26 am IST - KOCHI:

Despite the rumblings of the Nepal earthquake being felt at a place as far away from the epicentre as Kochi, and with many mild tremors recorded over the years, the city is yet to wake up to the challenges posed by disasters including earthquakes.

It even failed to follow up a programme that attempted to create awareness on risk reduction and rescue measures in the event of a disaster. The civic authorities could not take forward the Urban Disaster Risk Reduction project that trained over 500 school students and sections of the local population. The two-year-long programme, supported by the United Nations Development Programme, ended in May 2013. However, no one bothered to take it further, said Tinu Rose Francis, the coordinator of the programme, now based in New Zealand.

City-level workshops for engineers in the Town Planning Department and the five municipal corporations of the State were carried out. The establishment and strengthening of a City Emergency Operation Centre, orientation programmes for mayors, councillors and other officials were planned to mainstream and integrate disaster risk reduction into development planning, said Ms. Francis who is pursuing her doctoral research at the Centre for Disaster Resilience, Recovery and Reconstruction at the University of Auckland.

Experts had identified several structurally-weak buildings in the city that could pose serious risks to human lives. The students of city schools are vulnerable to risks such as earthquake, building collapse and fire.

During the programme, exit routes were mapped and displayed in select schools for the benefit of students. Team leaders elected from the students were also trained to lead the risk reduction and rescue operations in case of a casualty, she said.

The school programme covered training teachers and creating awareness, assessment of structural safety of buildings, mock drills, preparation of school disaster management plans and training on lifesavings skills in 30 city schools, Ms. Francis said.

The managements of some of the schools, which had structurally weak buildings, cold-shouldered the training programmes. As the trained students might have all left the schools, new batches should be trained. The risk reduction and management measures should be made part of the curriculum. Periodic revision and assessments on disaster safety programs should also be held, she suggested.

Awareness and risk reduction programmes for some coastal communities and residents associations too were carried out. Those projects would end up ineffective if not followed up, she said.

K.J. Sohan, chairman of the Town Planning Standing Committee of the corporation, said the City Emergency Operation Centre had become defunct in the city.

No follow-up to disaster risk reduction project

UNDP-supported project ended in May 2013

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