This disaster management essay is an excellent introduction of disaster management. Disaster management in India is a burning topicso if you are also searching for what is disaster management,you are at a right place. Read this disaster management in India essayandclear all your doubts about disaster management and natural disaster management.
Disaster Management
A disaster can be defined as any tragic event stemming from events such as earthquakes, floods, catastrophic accidents, fires or explosions. Disasters can cause significant physical damage or destruction, loss of life or drastic change to the environment.
Disasters can be both man-made and natural. Man-made disasters are stampedes, fire, oil spills etc and natural disasters are floods, tsunami, storms etc.
Coping with any kind of disaster requires a disaster management plan in place.
Disaster management is a process or strategy that is implemented before, during and after any tragic event takes place. This process can be initiated whenever anything threatens to disrupt normal operations or puts people’s lives at risk. Governments at all levels, as well as businesses, create their own disaster plans that make it possible to overcome various catastrophes and return to normal routine and functioning as soon as possible.
There are four essential elements to disaster management namely prevention, preparation, relief and recovery. Some catastrophes can be avoided and the effects of others can be mitigated. Prevention is possible in man-made disasters and in case of some natural disasters.
The premise behind prevention is to identify potential disasters that could disrupt day-to-day operations of a business or city or region. It makes it easy to draw contingency plans, assemble supplies and create procedures that can be initiated if and when a particular disaster happens. For example, a fire can take place anywhere. Therefore having fire alarms installed to instantly signify whenever a fire breaks out and creating a proper evacuation plan is a must.
Similarly, the Bhopal Gas Leak of 1984 that took approximately 2000 lives could have been avoided had the company fixed its erroneous storage system and design flaws.
As technology has advanced, it has become possible to forecast the occurrence of some natural disasters. For example, the meteorological department had predicted a day in advance of the occurrence of Cyclone Phailin of 2013 and the government had got the area evacuated in time and saved a million lives. This is how the government successfully averted a potential disaster.
Next step is preparation and reaction. This is a step which is important both in the case of pre-empted disasters and unanticipated disasters. A typical disaster plan for a local or regional government is likely to address such matters as evacuating people from the affected region, arranging temporary housing, distributing food and providing medical care. This reactive approach was apparent in the Kashmir floods of 2014, where the relief operation included all the above features.
Disaster management also often addresses the issue of communication. Many disasters can cause communication, networks to fail, so a competent plan will include the quick set-up of alternative communication capabilities that do not rely on towers and switches. Having disaster kits ready is next part of disaster management. The kits include first aid supplies, basic medication, food and clothing.
The last part of crisis management is fixing loopholes and improvement plans. Emergency plans that are thought to be comprehensive, often turn out to be only partially effective. Thus, such plans should be revisited to identify weaknesses to refine them.
The preparedness was thought to be weak in case of Uttarakhand tragedy of 2013, post which the government tightened its emergency plans which were seen in the relief mission of Kashmir floods of 2014.
That was all about disaster management. Disaster can strike anywhere, but one must be prepared to deal with them.
