The Inter-governmental Meeting to finalise the text of the draft SAARC Agreement on Rapid Response to Natural Disasters concluded in Male last Thursday with a broad agreement on the issue that needed to be addressed.
According to the global database on disasters, over the past forty years, South Asia faced as many as 1,333 disasters that killed 980,000 people, affected 2.4 billion lives and damaged assets worth $105 billion. These totals are, by far, the highest among the recorded disasters in various geographic regions.
No border for disaster
Highlighting this, Secretary-General of SAARC Fathimath Dhiyana Saeed said every major earthquake in the Himalayas would affect more than one country; every cyclone in the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea had the potential to affect two countries at a time; every major flood had its origin and consequence beyond a single country.
“The objective of the draft Agreement before you is to put in place an effective mechanism for rapid response to disasters to achieve substantial reduction in loss of lives and loss of social, economic and environmental assets in times of a disaster. It is based on the principle of respect for the sovereignty, territorial integrity and national unity of all member states and the mechanism will only be triggered — and this is an important point, distinguished delegates, the mechanism will only be triggered — if a request for assistance is made by a member state. The draft Agreement sets out the principles and modalities for provision of assistance and relief to an affected party including exemptions and facilities for provision of assistance, transit of personnel, equipment, facilities and materials,” she said in a recorded address which was broadcast at the conference.
Regional initiative
The idea of establishing a mechanism for rapid response to natural disasters had been voiced at the 15th SAARC summit held in Colombo in 2008. Since then two expert-level meetings were held to discuss various aspects of the agreement, including security and customs and immigration clearances required for setting up such a system in the region. The mechanism is proposed to be created under the already existing SAARC Disaster Management Centre (SDMC). If the draft is finalised it will be signed at the 17th SAARC Summit to be held in the Maldives from November 10-11, 2011.
The Secretary-General pointed out that six out of eight member states of SAARC were located, partly or fully, on the Himalayas and its associated ranges, which are still adjusting to tectonic movements. This had triggered some of the worst earthquakes and the probability of even more disastrous earthquakes poses a grave threat to human lives, livelihoods and infrastructure in the region. Also, the Himalayas had the largest glaciers outside the polar region, which were melting due to climate change. The immediate consequence had been the increasing incidence of flash floods, glacial lake outburst floods and riverine floods. The long term impact of this phenomenon presents a serious threat to the perennial river systems of the Indus, Ganga and Brahamputra that sustained life and civilisations in South Asia for millennia, she said.
“South Asia supports one-fourth of humanity with less than five per cent of global income. This means that poverty and deprivation that we face in South Asia puts us in a situation of acute vulnerability. South Asia has the largest concentration of mega cities which are growing rapidly,” she added.
South Asia faced 1,333 disasters in the last forty years
Agreement on response mechanism, aid, territorial integrity
