With incidence of floods becoming more frequent and severe, the slow rollout of community-based disaster risk management activities, lack of awareness of changing climatic conditions, and unsustainable and poor management of natural resources and assets are worsening disaster risks in the State.
These were among the underlying risk drivers identified by experts as part of the ‘resilient recovery policy framework and action plan for shaping Kerala’s resilient, risk-informed development and recovery’ from the 2018 deluge.
The State disaster management plan had assessed 39 known and reported hazard types that may turn disastrous in the event of lack of proper preparedness and risk reduction planning.
The impact of climate change has been aggravated by the lack of adaptive capacity of the State to floods, droughts, and mudflows, which are expected to increase in frequency and severity.
Floods and landslips that have taken a heavy toll after a year in the State have proved it beyond doubt, official sources said. The other risk drivers include degrading environment due to exploitation of natural resources and deforestation, coastal erosion, monsoon storm surges, sea level rise, and land subsidence due to tunnel erosion or soil piping. Lack of awareness and anticipation of disaster risks, including weak institutional capacity to deal with high-intensity disasters, also make matters worse. Additionally, there are limited considerations of disaster risk within social and economic sectors, partly because of competing demands on limited financial resources and inadequate capacity.
Poor maintenance of assets accentuates risk and increases State’s vulnerability to natural disasters. Non-compliance with design standards and non-incorporation of resilient features in urban infrastructure have been reaffirmed by the widespread flooding in urban and semi-urban areas during the mid-August floods last year.
Current land use regulations are based on the Paddy and Wetland Act, River Management Act, Kerala Municipal Building Rules, and the Kerala Panchayat Building Rules.
These do not ideate into a single land management regulation for enforcement agencies to pursue due to the regulatory and non-restricting nature of these orders, sources said.
