150 villages to get infrastructure to tackle natural disasters

Around 150 villages in the State and Puducherry have been selected for infrastructure development with the aim to tackle natural disasters. The works will be taken up under the Tamil Nadu and Puducherry Coastal Disaster Risk Reduction Project. Multipurpose evacuation shelters, early warning systems with evacuation routes and signage and underground electrical cables are some of the works envisaged. The Union Government and the World Bank recently signed a $236-million credit agreement to enhance mitigation measures along coastal Tamil Nadu and Puducherry. The project will be financed by credit from the International Development Association (IDA), which provides interest-free loans with 25 years to maturity and a grace period of five years. Nilaya Mitash, joint secretary, Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance, said the project will focus on new initiatives in risk reduction and mitigation. Deepak Singh, senior disaster risk management specialist at World Bank, said the project would work towards integrating with the previous WB-supported emergency tsunami reconstruction project. A release from the World Bank further stated that about 2,000 km of overhead electrical network will be replaced with underground cables in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry.
10 point plan to tackle natural disasters
On January 27, 2011, the Insurance Council of Australia released a 10-point plan containing policy and industry initiatives aimed at developing a more effective and sustainable response to disasters in Australia. Objectives of the 10-point plan: 1. Standard definition for flood: Reform of the Insurance Contracts Act to include a common definition of flood for reference by insurers that offer flood insurance (to maintain competition and consumer choice, retain the right to derogate and amend the definition under the 'unusual terms' section of the Act). 2. Improved disclosure: Industry commitment to simplify and improve insurance product disclosure statement summary arrangements to enhance consumer understanding of insurance cover. 3. Provision of adequate flood data: Agreement from Government to establish an open source nationally consistent and contemporary digital terrain model, to allow the accurate mapping of flood risks nationwide and communication of those risks by government to property owners. 4. Removal of insurance taxes: Commitment across all Governments to encourage greater personal responsibility in the community through implementation of recommendation number 79 of the Henry Tax Review to abolish all insurance taxes, including fire services levies. 5. Improved land-use planning: Commitment by Government to develop national landuse planning criteria that prohibits inappropriate land-use in Australia.

6. Improve building standards: Commitment by Government to improve the community's disaster resilience by modernising the Building Code of Australia to include minimum standards for the durability of property to natural hazards. 7. Improve community infrastructure: Recovery funds dedicated to preventative infrastructure projects including levees, barrages, flood gates and improved drainage. 8. Education and financial literacy campaign: Government and industry commit to a community education campaign to increase awareness of insurers' obligations to consumers and dispute resolution arrangements. This includes promoting the insurance industry Code of Practice. 9. Measure effectiveness of disaster relief payments: Introduce annual reporting by the Productivity Commission on the effectiveness of State and Federal disaster relief payments. 10. Better advice to consumers: Commitment by Government to ensure the advice provisions in the Corporations Act do not impede discussion between consumers and insurers on appropriate insurance cover needs.

Early warning
Despite predictions that global warming will bring more frequent and intense floods, droughts and storms, there is a great deal that governments, aid agencies and local communities can do to reduce the risk of natural hazards becoming disasters. Earth observation satellites provide data on weather patterns, volcanoes, earthquakes and wildfires. Satellite technology can predict where hurricanes will hit, and when volcanoes might erupt. However, in many developing countries, particularly in Africa, there still is not enough technological infrastructure or weather forecasting capacity to provide accurate information to communities in time for them to act. The Global Framework for Climate Services, an international project to get science-based climate information into government planning, aims to address this situation, but much work is required at the local level - an area where aid agencies are becoming increasingly active. Since 1965, 26 countries have collaborated on an early warning tsunami system in the Pacific Ocean. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre located near Honolulu, Hawaii, monitors seismic activity throughout the Pacific Basin. After an earthquake, tsunami warnings are issued based on the estimated distance any abnormally large waves generated might travel. Alerts are sent to local, state, national and international authorities, as well as the media. The U.S. Coast Guard broadcasts warnings over medium and very high frequency marine radios. Coastal sirens are also used. Following the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami which killed 230,000 people, a large network of seismographic centres, national warning centres, coastal and deep-ocean stations was put in place across the Indian Ocean to detect potential tsunamis and pass on warnings to governments and the media. When it comes to hunger crises, seasonal weather forecasting, together with monitoring of local harvests and food prices by organisations like FEWS NET, enables aid agencies and policy makers to know several months in advance when food insecurity is likely to increase and to what extent. But even though early warning systems have been strengthened, governments are still failing to prevent food emergencies in developing nations, because they see more political danger than reward in acting early to avert famine, argued a 2013 report from London-based think tank Chatham House.