Officials and participants of capacity building programme for the forthcoming NEPEx in Kohima on November 15. (Morung Photo)
Our Correspondent
Kohima | November 15
With just a day left for the Nagaland Emergency Preparedness Exercise (NEPEx)- Multi-State Level Mock Drill exercise on earthquake disaster, the Nagaland State Disaster Management Authority (NSDMA) today conducted a capacity building programme under the theme “Build to last: Disaster Resilient Infrastructure.”
The mock drill exercise will take place on November 17 under the aegis of NSDMA in collaboration with National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), Ministry of Home Affairs, Govt of India, to test the capability of the state to respond to, and manage any mega disaster.
The exercise will be on earthquake disaster scenario of 8.7 magnitude.
Earlier, Nagaland’s chief secretary J. Alam directed the DDMAs to identify five vulnerable places—two private or government schools, one college, one market place and one residential area in their districts as affected sites.
Addressing the capacity building programme here today at ATI, Nagaland’s home commissioner Abhijit Sinha said that Nagaland is one of the earthquake-prone states, for which the people should take serious measures and plans.
He appealed all the concerned departments to take active part in this NEPEx across the state which will be held simultaneously with Assam and Arunachal Pradesh.
Sinha regretted that Building Bylaws have not been put into full operation in Nagaland.
He added that construction and building are seen densely due to population pressure, mostly in Dimapur and Kohima, where people should be more cautious to plan and avoid disasters.
Apprising all the concerned to stay prepared as the risk has grown manifold, he said “We should try to minimize and have proper understanding to respond immediately when disaster strikes.”
‘Extreme weather event caused loss of more than Rs. 800 crore’
NSDMA joint chief executive officer Johnny Ruangmei said that during 2017-18, extreme weather event caused Nagaland a loss of more than Rs 800 crore as per post damage needs assessments.
He said that disaster has the power to stop or halt development if not prepared, adding that disaster is no longer “if” but “when.”
Stating that individuals, governments, businesses and decision makers cannot be stranger to disaster, Ruangmei said “Finding the way where the risks are coming from and understanding the strategies to address the risk is everybody’s business to be safe.”
He said that developmental activities in Nagaland need to be redefined.
Stating that investment must be made to reduce vulnerability and exposure to hazard, he said “Intervention should include a portfolio of investments to avoid, reduce and manage residual risk.”
Effective disaster risk management is cardinal to facilitate climate change adaptation and contributes to broaden resilience, he said.
He said that NEPEx is the state wide emergency exercise to make Nagaland a safer state and resilient society.
Its objective is to qualify the capability of the state in responding to an event of any disaster, development and strengthening of awareness, preparedness, response and recovery plan, capacity building of emergency support function and practice of SOP, to create awareness among multi stakeholders about the impact of disaster, and to build linkages and coordination among multi stakeholders in responding to disasters.
In Kohima, the mock drill exercise will start at 9:00 AM on November 17 by sounding a siren at PHQ.
Earlier, Brijender Singh, OSD Disaster Management Department & SDMA, Government of Rajasthan; Medozhalie Pienyu, Deputy Commandant General, Home Guard, Civil Defence and SDRF, Nagaland; and Nawal Prakesh, Joint Advisor (Ops) of NDMA among others lectured at the technical session.
Department of Health & Family Welfare, Police, Food & Civil Supplies, water resource, transport and power department presented their respective Disaster Management plans on earthquake during the technical session.
The programme was chaired by Khrolou Koza Lohe, assistant manager (Training & Education), NSDMA.
Nagaland a multi hazard prone state
Nagaland is a multi hazard prone state and is vulnerable to events of disaster in varying degrees, to a large number of natural, as well as, human-made disasters on account of its unique geo-climatic and socio- economic conditions.
“It is highly vulnerable to flash-floods, droughts, cyclones, earthquakes, landslides and forest fires,” according to NSDMA.
Though Nagaland is vulnerable to multi-hazards, the state has survived the impact of all such natural phenomenon. Not only survived them but have come out stronger after every such experiences and today, it is the view that there is no such thing as a 'natural disaster' but basically only 'natural hazards,' the NSDMA said.
“This further leads to our understanding that we cannot prevent a hazard from happening but we can prevent it from becoming a disaster. Severity depends on how much impact a hazard has on the society or environment,” NSDMA stated adding that the scale of the impact depends on the choices “we make for our lives and for our environment.”
In the recent past, the extreme weather events caused extensive damages in Nagaland to agricultural crops, properties, and other public utility infrastructures. Such events had rendered thousands of people homeless in various parts of Nagaland especially due to flash floods, it added.
Nagaland had witnessed many disasters in the recent past and had responded to 23 major disaster incidents across the State. Some recent notable incidents included Dzukou Ice water drowning, Dzukou and Japfu Forest Fire, landslide induced by the extreme weather events, flash floods and cyclonic storms etc.
