Role_of_Local_Actors_in_Disaster_Management_-

Local people and organisations are the main actors in risk reduction and disaster response in any case.In a time when natural disasters are striking region and countries with increased frequencies causing death and devastations, it would be pertinent to think about their long term remedies. Although technological breakthroughs and growing cooperation among nations and different macro-actors have proved very handy in reducing the damage, a more sustainable way of handling natural disasters can be found by investing on the ability of the local institutions and the affected communities. Given their long experiences of coping with natural disasters and keen knowledge of local reality, the local level institutions particularly the panchayats and urban bodies can play pivotal role in any efforts to manage disasters in India This strategic shift would be possible by decentralising and institutionalising the role of local institutions and the affected communities in disaster management as ‘willing and equal partners’ not as ‘victims’. It strongly recommended to involve local communities in the design, adoption and implementation of disaster reduction policies and measures. Taking cues from the Bangladeshi experiences, the State Government, the UNDP and several local Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) undertook a series of programmes that gave primacy to local self-institutions and the affected people. Under a scheme popularly known as community based disaster preparedness (CBDP) hundreds of local volunteers, panchayat representatives, officials and professionals from NGOs were trained to carry relief and rescue operations, techniques to administer first aid, assist aid agencies in relief operations and so on. Besides, a number of taskforces with systematic response structure were formed to face different kind of disasters. This strategy of relying on the ability of local community paid rich dividends in 2001 flood. The 2001 flood, one of the worst in the last fifty years struck the state in less than two years of super cyclone. The state was yet to recovery from the unprecedented damage caused by super-cyclone. However, because of better preparation and greater reliance on local actors, the casualty was brought down to a manageable limit. The local communities were able to respond much in advance, could form a better network and had better communication with other authorities. In fact, the trained volunteers did exemplary role in rescue and relief operations which were widely reported in the media. The successful piloting of this initiative in certain blocks of Orissa prompted the UNDP to recommend the Government to make planning for reduction of vulnerabilities to natural disasters as an integral part of decentralised planning.