Study on Disaster Assistance Program Models In India

Knowledge of the characteristics of the victims enables us to plan for both types of assistance. Relief is the easiest. Droughts can again provide an example. Farmers, especially marginal, subsistence farmers, will be prominent primary victims. In an emergency they and their families will need food and alternative sources of income until they can replant and harvest a normal crop. Therefore, the relief program must have a feeding component and a long-term assistance component; the latter, in the form of social services, will help the families find other means of supporting them until the emergency has passed and they can replant.

Cyclone warnings are communicated to Crisis Managers and other concerned organizations by high priority telegrams, telex, telephones and Police wireless. Cyclone warning are provided by the IMD from the Area Cyclone Warning Centres (ACWCs) at Calcutta, Chennai and Mumbai and Cyclone Warning Centers (CWCs) at Vishakhapatnam, Bhubaneswar and Ahmedabad. There is also a Satellite based communication system called the Cyclone Warning Dissemination Systems (CWDS) for transmission of warnings. There are 250 such cyclone-warning sets installed in the cylone prone areas of east and west coast. The general public, the coastal residents and fishermen, are also warned through the Government mechinery and broadcast of warnings through AIR and Television.

Flooding is caused by the inadequate capacity within the banks of the rivers to contain the high flow brought down from the upper catchments due to heavy rainfall. It is also caused by accumulation of water resulting from heavy spells of rainfall over areas, which have got poor drainage characteristics. 3.18 Flooding is accentuated by erosion and silting leading to meandering of the rivers in plains and reduction in carrying capacity of the river channel. It is also aggravated by earthquakes and landslides, leading to changes in river course and obstructions to flow. Synchronization of floods in the main rivers and tributaries and retardation of flow due to tidal effects lead to major floods. Cyclones bring in their wake considerable loss of life and property. The flood forecasting and warning system is used for alerting the likely damage centers well in advance of the actual arrival of floods, to enable the people to move and also to remove the moveable property to safer places or to raised platforms specially constructed for the purpose. A beginning in scientific flood forecasting was made in November, 1958 by Central Water Commission (then known as Central Water & Power Commission) when a Flood Forecasting Centre was set up at its Headquarters, at Delhi, for giving timely Forecasts and Warnings of the incoming floods to the villages located in the river areas around the National Capital, Delhi. The network has been expanding and by now the Flood Forecasting Network of the Central Water Commission (CWC) covers all the major flood prone inter-State river basins in the country.

Knowing that primary victims will be farmers also helps us to plan disaster mitigation and reconstruction programs. Both activities require that people change some aspect of their normal way of doing things. In the disaster context, change can be brought about in one of three ways: through public awareness, in other words providing people with information so that they will act on their own; through legal measures, i.e., forcing people to change by law; or through extension and education, i.e., demonstrating and teaching alternative methods and encouraging their implementation by means of a variety of services. If we know that the target audience will consist of farmers, mitigation measures will involve changing crops, cropping patterns, or agricultural practices. This will require demonstrations, technical assistance, and extensive people-to-people contact. We also know that public awareness and legal methods will have little impact on changing agricultural patterns; therefore, the assistance model for mitigation and reconstruction must be based on extension and education. Table -A identifies the primary victims in several types of disaster and lists the disaster assistance program models that can be used in each case. Comparison of column 3 "Pre- Disaster Assistance Models" and column 5 "Post-Disaster Assistance Models" shows that both borrow heavily from normal development methodology. By understanding these links, disaster managers will be more effective participants in both disaster and development activities. * This is normally an advantage because agencies working in development in a country can be effective where they have existing programs. Agencies entering a country during the emergency have to learn their way around. ** While it is often true that there is little pre-disaster planning for refugee operations, planning can be effected for continuing flows of refugees from the same country, e.g., Vietnamese, Kampucheans, and Laotians arriving in neighboring countries throughout the 1970s; and Ethiopians entering nearby countries throughout the same period. Thus, the questions of planning and the ability to expand or contract an operation.

Depending on the circumstances, is key. Foreign governments may directly provide the host government with bilateral aid either in cash or in relief materials or foods, or they may support the refugees through the designated relief agencies. "Primary victims" are persons affected by the immediate consequences of a disaster. For example, farmers would be primary victims of droughts. "Secondary victims" reside within the affected area or on the border of the area. They too suffer economic loss because of the disaster. An example is the small store owner within the disaster area who would be unable to sell goods because the primary victims lack the cash. Secondary victims in refugee operations include people living adjacent to a refugee camp. These persons have needs similar to the refugees and may be adversely affected by their pressure. They must be considered for assistance to avoid creating special problems and hostility between the refugees and their neighbors.

1 "The Potential Contribution of Peace Corps to Disaster Preparedness in Africa," INTERECT. 1 Disaster Preparedness Guidelines, OFDA Disaster Preparedness Seminar Handbook, 1976. 2 Cuny and Thompson, Formulating Policies for Disaster Management, INTERTECT, Dallas, 198 3 de Ville de Goyet, C., Seaman, J., and Geiger, U., The Management of Nutritional Emergencies in Large Populations, World Health Organization, 1978, p. 38. 4 Disaster Preparedness Guidelines, OFDA Disaster Preparedness Seminar, St. Lucia, 1979.

• The United Nations and its organisations

• The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies

• The International Committee of the Red Cross

• International non-governmental agencies