The four-day World Congress on Disaster Management will conclude here on Sunday with the adoption of ‘Visakhapatnam Declaration’ containing several recommendations to the authorities on disaster-resilient technologies to put the risk factors at bare minimum.
It will focus on lessons learnt from disasters caused by human negligence as well as nature’s fury and climate change mainly in the backdrop of Cyclones Phailin and Hudhud.
Delegates from 20 States and 40 countries are attending the congress.
Visakhapatnam Declaration Advisory Committee Chairman and Bihar Disaster Management Authority Vice-Chairman Anil Kumar Sinha said Andhra Pradesh being a new State would have a challenging task ahead in adopting disaster management technologies in the construction of world-class capital Amaravati.
Roadmap
He said Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu, who attended the inaugural of World Congress on Disaster Management, was very keen on preparing a roadmap for fool-proof mechanism to minimise human and property loss in the event of natural calamities and catastrophes.
With the clear definition of disasters and formation of a three-tier structure by forming disaster management authorities at the national, State and district-level after the enactment of law on disasters in 2005, India was ahead of several countries in disaster preparedness.
“Going by recent experiences in handling disasters, our country has been successful in minimising losses,” Mr. Sinha said.
“Our thrust of discussions at the world congress is on build back better – not to recreate risks and not to create new risks by learning lessons from past experiences and follow best practices from other parts of the world,” he stated.
He said the National Building Code, which is advisory in nature with guidelines for better withstanding of seismic, wind velocity, rain, fire and other factors which cause heavy damage to properties and human beings, should be made mandatory.
Disaster Management, Infrastructure and Control Society president S. Anand Babu said sensitisation of mass media and all the stakeholders for better enforcement was also highlighted during the deliberations.
