Nagaland State Disaster Management Authority (NSDMA) officer on special duty (OSD) Johnny Ruangmei described Nagaland as one of the most multi-hazard prone States of India and called upon all government departments to follow common principles and approaches while preparing their respective departmental Disaster Manager (DM) plans.
Ruangmei said this in his introductory speech to DM and orientation on departmental DM plan template at ATI here on Wednesday. He remarked that Nagaland faced various types of natural hazards like geological hazards of earthquakes and landsides.
He said the frequent intensity of most of hydro meteorological hazards were compounded by climate change and its impact on agriculture, horticulture, human settlements and human-animal health.
Ruangmei also pointed out that every year Nagaland was pushed into crisis due to heavy and incessant rains, leading to floods and submergence of many low-lying areas, including a large part of commercial city Dimapur. These require hectic evacuation and rescue operations, all of which resulted in causalities and damage of property, crops and livestock.
Asserting that the State government was trying its best to contain the crisis, Ruangmei admitted that sometimes it was beyond capability of the State to cope due to massive infrastructural damage at many locations.
The OSD pointed out that due to extreme weather pattern in 2018, the economic cost of disaster for Nagaland was high and was likely to increase further in the future due to climate change.
He explained that infrastructural damage, especially roads and bridges, and impact of disaster on individual properties had a direct impact on the State’s economic growth.
Ruangmei said the need to assess economic impacts of disasters should be a priority as they have been causing and would continue to inflict huge damage.
He said the government’s policy for public investment should take into account the impact of disasters on economic growth of the community.
He said in recent years, Nagaland had been experiencing micro effects of climate change, that made the State more vulnerable and hazard-prone, while pointing out that the drastic changes in the annual rainfall had caused huge loss to the agrarian economy.
He reminded each department that it had its unique and specific role and responsibilities that must be the focus of their respective DM plans, even as he stressed that the common principles and approaches should be followed by all the departments while preparing their respective departmental DM plans.
The OSD also presented an overview analysis of climate pattern in the State from 2010 to 2017. Officials from various departments attended the orientation programme.