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Communication and Natural Disasters

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In her blog Learning from "Chennai floods": Development Paradigms and Disasters, Ranjani.K.Murthy contends the following: Living in Chennai at the time of 2015 floods (which in fact hit several coastal districts of the state Tamil Nadu), and hearing commentaries of how climate change and poor disaster reduction/management were responsible for the deaths and the crisis that followed, I was thinking there is something missing in the debate. The missing element was the direction of development followed in Tamil Nadu, and perhaps globally. Ranjani expands on this with reference to markets, real estate development, housing "rules", wet lands, marshy lands, water courses, and overall development strategies. How natural disasters are handled is a crucial communication and media issue. Can we please encourage you to review Ranjani's blog.  Please use the views and analysis she provides as the basis for sharing and expressing your perspective and and on communication, media, disasters and development in support of everyone's communication and media work in India. Thank you

Comments

Submitted by Edwina Pereira on Wed, 05/04/2016 - 20:06 Permalink

How we manage our city building , our natural resources...be they lakes, land, space, atmosphere ...especially when density of people per space increases is so critical to preventing disasters. The so called developments of urban life the wanton construction of apartments the close minded mentality of my space versus our space, the lecherous greed of governments and builders are invisible in the present day plans we make for preventing disasters. Let's create a robust three dimensional model including these

Edwina Pereira

Program Director Training
INSA-INDIA
www.theinsaindia.org

Submitted by Poonam Muttrej… on Thu, 05/05/2016 - 03:13 Permalink

First, I would like to commend the author for bringing to light some crucial issues which have become a common feature of city expansion in the country. Most importantly she has highlighted the fact that the marginalized and most vulnerable communities especially women find it most difficult to rebuild their lives. It is a well established fact that India has witnessed massive urbanization which has definitely caused grave consequences on access to land, water, health and hygiene again affecting women and children largely. Having utilized the power of communication for social change at Population Foundation of India, via the edutainment initiative titled Main Kuch Bhi Kar Sakti Hoon, I think communication plays a crucial role in times of such crisis. Media is a powerful tool today, I believe using a comprehensive behaviour change communication while utilizing the diverse medium – one can prepare communities and manage disasters most effectively. It is a wake-up call for Government, local authorities and civil society organizations to effectively use a gender based approach as an integral tool within disaster response communication.

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Submitted by gaargi32 (not verified) on Thu, 05/05/2016 - 22:06 Permalink

Thank you Ranjani for sharing your insights. Esther Maria Selvam and her team at Action Aid are mobilising those who are part of the forced relocation from the Adyar floodplains to areas that affect their livelihood (for your information)

I too think it is important to question how 'natural' or 'human-made' the flood debacle was.

I wonder if you followed Prof Janakrajan of MIDS and SACI Waters in his Hindu Lit for Life and other public lectures? He maintains that it is the systematic destruction of the watersheds in Chennai and neighbouring districts, that causes both floods and perennial water scarcity after. What a tragedy that failure to manage run off is what causes water scarcity later.

I was wondering, what are the citizens spaces and platforms (besides NGOs) that engage with the science-policy interface, city governance vis-à-vis an ecological approach, urban land-use transformation, real estate business as a key stakeholder to engage with, etc?

India has a Biodiversity Act of 2002 and a statutory body called the National Biodiversity Authority set up by this act, to help India meet her commintments to being signatory to the 1992 Rio Convention called the Convention for Biological Diversity (www.cbd.int). Cities and Biodiversity is one of the themes of the CBD, which may be of interest to readers here. I work on a project in NBA related to this theme, and am looking at the role of governance (which includes citizen action to make government accountable) and real estate in connection to biodiversity and ecosystem transformation in cities. Would be happy to have any useful leads related to these areas.