<
https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/opinion/2023/11/03/odisha-s-turnaround-in-disaster-management-has-lessons-for-the-world>
"It has been twenty-five years since the Super Cyclone ravaged Odisha. Around
18 million people were affected, more than 10,000 precious lives were lost, and
the economy was devastated.
The event, however, marked a turning point in Odisha’s development trajectory.
Not only did the cyclone-prone state resolve to protect its people from future
disasters - setting the goal of ‘zero-human casualties’ – it also emerged as a
global pioneer in disaster management.
Today, Odisha is more resilient. Odisha’s years of planning and preparation
paid off as fatalities from powerful cyclones never crossed double digits. When
Cyclone Phailin struck the coast in 2013, Odisha carried out one of the most
successful disaster management efforts in the world, evacuating close to 1
million people ahead of the strongest cyclone to hit the country since the
Super Cyclone. In 2019, when another powerful cyclone – Cyclone Fani – struck,
the Odisha government showed a high degree of preparedness and effectively
evacuated about 1.2 million people based on these predictions.
In 1999, in the wake of the Super Cyclone, Odisha became the first state in
India to establish a disaster management authority. In fact, the body, now
known as the Odisha State Disaster Management Authority (OSDMA), was set up
well before the establishment of the National Disaster Management Authority
(NDMA) in 2005.
Importantly, the state departed from the conventional approach to disaster
management by placing local communities at the heart of the effort. As such,
people at the grassroots – gram panchayats, women’s self-help groups and a
100,000-plus cadre of volunteers – were trained to reduce disaster risk and
manage rescue and relief operations. Even now, every June and November, the
OSDMA conducts two massive community-led mock drills across the state,
mobilizing several government departments, district collectors, gram
panchayats, NGOs and thousands of trained volunteers in this massive exercise."
Via
Future Crunch:
<
https://futurecrunch.com/good-news-rail-education-ethiopia-conservation-congo/>
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
