New Delhi(IANS) : Urging countries to be more practical and pre-empt natural disasters, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Wednesday said sharing technologies and information would be useful to address the challenge of risk reduction and promote regional cooperation in this area.
“Disaster risk reduction, in particular, should be based on practical pre-emptive action. Typically, small investments in improving the safety of houses can go a long way in reducing the risk of damage to life and property arising from earthquakes,” Manmohan Singh said while inaugurating the second Asian ministerial conference on disaster risk reduction.
“Studies carried out by our engineers show that we could have saved valuable lives and property if we had appropriate housing technologies in earthquake-prone areas. We are developing such technologies that are affordable and also are appropriate to the situation we face on the ground.”
Pointing out that disasters know no political boundaries and all are equally vulnerable to them, the prime minister maintained that this was one area where nations could cooperate to find collective solutions to the challenges they face.
“After all, it is in difficult times that we need the best of relations. As a wise old saying goes – a friend in need is a friend indeed.”
Acknowledging that Asian countries had come together to provide rescue and relief in the aftermath of the tsunami of 2004 and the mammoth earthquake a year later in Pakistan and Jammu and Kashmir, he pointed out that this was one platform for countries to learn to work together in the best interests of all their peoples.
“Earthquakes, cyclones, floods and tsunami have contributed to disasters across Asia in the recent past. In handling all these disasters, what is important is to have coherent national strategies and national capabilities to handle these disasters. This would be in the realm of both disaster prevention and disaster management,” he said.
“At the same time, each of the past episodes has shown us that a national response alone is not adequate. While we have the necessary wherewithal in Asia to respond to disasters, we need more bilateral and regional cooperation to make effective use of our capabilities.”
To substantiate his point, Manmohan Singh referred to the tsunami early warning system that was a good example of regional cooperation and hoped the same effort could be replicated in other areas of disaster management and mitigation.
Besides natural disasters, he also exhorted countries to come together to deal with manmade disasters including industrial disasters or disasters caused by terrorists’ attacks.
“The threat of terrorism looms large in many parts of our region and could trigger disasters across borders. We must also learn to deal with new kinds of health disasters such as HIV, avian flu which have emerged as new challenges all over the world,” he said.
“And of course, the biggest disaster that we may yet prevent from happening is the catastrophic effect of global warming and climate change. Whereas we have only nature to blame for natural disasters, we cannot say the same for manmade disasters.”
The prime minister also pointed out that India’s National Disaster Management Authority and state level disaster management authorities were advocating a new approach to disaster management.
“The paradigm shift that they have advocated is based on moving away from a relief-centric, post event approach to a holistic, integrated and preventive approach. The focus will be on disaster prevention, preparedness and mitigation.”