Disaster Management

Disasters like flood whether natural or man-induced are creating a great loss to all sorts of life- human beings, animals, plants and resources- buildings, and infrastructure and above all cause psychological problems. Floods are increasing with the move to material civilization, urbanization and industrialization. With this new cult, even natural disasters are occurring because of the disturbances in natural equilibrium caused by the greed and lust of human beings to exploit natural resources to get rich quickly. World Bank in India (January 2007) in its Article, “Two years after the tsunami, South Asia Prepares against Future Disasters”, observes that across the world, natural disasters are growing in number and destructiveness, and their human toll is escalating. In the past 20 years alone, more than 4 billion people have been affected by natural catastrophes from floods, cyclones, and tsunami, earthquakes, landslides, and volcanic eruptions.

Response to Disaster, in the absence of a well-defined plan, would be arbitrary, leading to overemphasis of actions of some actions and absence of other critical actions. A formal plan for managing Disaster is, therefore, necessary. This Disaster management plan has a strong preventive focus which aims at reducing the frequency of occurrence of such Disaster while at the same time; it includes a plan of action for earthquakes, floods, cyclones, epidemics, industrial and chemical accidents, road accidents and fires. At the same time disaster management plan has a strong mitigation aspect as well, which will reduces the frequency of occurrence of such disasters.

TYPES OF HAZARDS THE DISTRICT PRONE TO:

District Rupnagar is highly prone to multi hazards like earthquake, flood, Pollution and Accidents. The low socioeconomic development in the district along with the high density of population is one of the most important reasons for this menace. The history of disasters in the district will provide a clear picture of the vulnerability to which the district is prone.