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SAARC delegates call for coordinated efforts to tackle disasters

—Photo: T.Singaravelou

FINDING A WAY: Officials of SAARC countries at a discussion on disaster management in Puducherry on Saturday.

PUDUCHERRY: Officials from four South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) countries on Saturday stressed the need for the member-states resorting to coordinated efforts on disaster management and mitigation.

Representatives of India, Bhutan, Nepal and Sri Lanka, who were touring the tsunami-hit areas as part of the International Training Programme on Community based Disaster Management and Mitigation Techniques for SAARC member-countries, called for concerted efforts as natural disasters did not discriminate between national boundaries.

Some of the delegates also pointed out that the Colombo Declaration of the 15th SAARC Summit had directed creating a Natural Disaster Rapid Response Mechanism to adopt a coordinated and planned approach to meet such emergencies under the aegis of the SAARC Disaster Management Centre (SDMC).

Programme Director of the National Institute of Rural Development (NIRD) E.V. Prakash Rao underscored the need for avoiding duplication of efforts as the developing countries could not afford to it.

Just as the SAARC summits had recognised the need for cooperation in disaster management, India, being a major partner, had agreed to conduct courses for the officials of the member-countries with 100 per cent sponsorship, he said.

The Tsunami Early Warning System in Hyderabad would help all the littoral states of the Indian Ocean Region, he said, adding that the countries could also liaise with the Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS) and they would be able to get all the relevant data free of cost.

Mr. Rao said the focus should be on creating awareness among the people and involving them in disaster management and mitigation.

They could also avail themselves of information from the International Crops Research Institute for Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) as even drought was a disaster in the region, as the institute had been doing a lot of experiments on increasing productivity through better crop pattern and farm practices, he said.

Among the officials of the SAARC countries who participated in the training programme were Tshewang Rinzin and Nagphey of Bhutan, Amita Kumari Rai, Oomen John and R. Neelam of India, Surya Prasad Bhandari and Raghunath Mahat of Nepal and T.M.L. Chandrani Sena Ratna, H.M.S. Jayatunge and S.P. Senaratne of Sri Lanka. A power point presentation on tsunami rehabilitation and restoration works undertaken in the Union Territory was made to the SAARC officials, who evinced interest in knowing about the coastal zone regulation measures and allocations made by the Central and State governments for disaster management.

The officials had already visited the NIRD headquarters in Hyderabad, where the faculty had explained to them the political system in India. They had also gone to INCOIS and ICRISAT.

They would visit some of the tsunami-hit areas in Tamil Nadu on Sunday.

The officials would interact with an expert from the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurological Sciences at a meeting in Hyderabad on August 12 to know more about the emotional support for the tsunami victims to overcome the trauma, he said.

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