Stung by the repeated climate change-induced environmental hazards, including flash floods and landslips, which often raise questions about the safety standards of structures in vulnerable areas, the State has decided to strictly implement risk-informed designing of infrastructure across the State.
A circular issued by the Chief Secretary made it clear that all the infrastructure projects in the State will have to follow risk-informed development to reduce the impact of disasters significantly. As per the circular, a checklist has to be submitted by the entity that executes the project mentioning the natural disaster impact assessment of the project. The checklist should have details of the disaster risks in the area and the safety measures adopted to meet the risk of hazards. This is mandatory for getting clearance for the project.
For instance, details regarding the history of disasters that have hit the proposed area or the location within 1 km radius of the proposed area, including probable seismicity at the site, probable maximum storm surge in the vicinity, probability of occurrence of floods, flood discharge, earthquakes, landslides, mudflows, avalanches, cyclones, tsunamis have to be mentioned in the checklist, apart from adequate safeguards to meet the risk of natural hazards.
Act on 2005
“Be the construction of an anganwadi or big rail-road infrastructure project, this risk-informed development model has to be followed henceforth to reduce the impact of hazards,” said Sekhar Kuriakose, Member-Secretary, Kerala State Disaster Management Authority (KSDMA). In fact, Section 39 (b) of the Disaster Management (DM) Act, 2005 makes clear that it is a statutory requirement for the departments of the State government to integrate risk-reduction measures into development plans and projects.
However, it was not followed diligently by various agencies. This forced the High Court to issue a directive to the State to issue instructions to all the departments concerned to ensure a self-certification by the project executing entities and beneficiaries at the stage of the design itself. This risk-informed development prioritises the risks faced by the project and standardisation of the process of integrating the measures for prevention of disaster and mitigation, said Mr. Kuriakose.
