INTERVENTIONS
The project has been designed to address the above critical issues and envisages to facilitate the rehabilitation and livelihood revival / sustenance process of the disaster hit areas of Rudraprayag District. The project perceives to achieve its goals over the time through a series of activities like –
Component 1: Capacity Building
Capacity building is identifying, developing and enhancing the existing capabilities and coping mechanisms of communities. Capability refers to inherent skills and knowledge or ability to respond; coping mechanisms are collective mechanisms derived from internal social systems and structures present in a community, and strategies adopted by them to deal with adverse and stressful situations.
Capacity building, as a process and non-structural approach in rural/urban disaster mitigation, will address vulnerability and its root causes and will be integrated into the development process so that it can contribute to sustainability, empowerment, and community resilience.
Component 2: Mitigation Planning and Implementation
Mitigation planning is the development of a strategy for reducing the impact of disasters on a community, facility, agency, city or country. Ideally, mitigation or disaster reduction planning is a broad priority-setting exercise to coordinate the efforts of multiple agencies and levels of government and society. The growing trend for communities, cities and countries to develop mitigation plans derives from the ongoing shift in the disaster field from post-event relief and recovery to pre-disaster preparedness, planning and mitigation and the decentralization of government responsibilities in many countries of the region.
The following elements will be added as essentials to mitigation planning and common features of many plans: building awareness and understanding of risk; involving key stakeholders; community participation; and implementation issues including prioritization, cost-benefit analysis, and resource mobilization.
- Development of Risk Based Methodology for Mitigation Planning
- Mitigation Planning through Community-Based Approaches
Component 3: Promotion and demonstration of safer building construction
Earthquakes do not kill people; unsafe buildings do. The imperatives for promoting safe building construction in the context of disaster related structural and non-structural risks are:
- Saving of lives of human beings and animals
- Saving of limited, costly and scarce resources of building materials and money (finances) from the loss of buildings, properties and infrastructure
- Reduction in economic losses due to negative impacts on economic/industrial activity and social and welfare areas like health, education and community well being
- Reduction in loss of time in planning, design, reconstruction phase lasting from 1 to 5 years or more.
- Reduction of trauma, physical and mental ill being of the affected community
- providing confidence among the community about the safe, strong, durable condition of houses, schools, health centers, community centers, offices, commercial establishments, and industrial production units in normal times and disaster times (during and after).
Major elements for promoting safer building construction will highlight on: a) awareness, b) appreciation, and c) application. There are three critical areas of action for promoting safer building construction: (1) developing awareness of vulnerability and risk; (2) developing appreciation among the general public and building delivery system regarding the differences between safe and unsafe buildings in the context of the disaster related additional forces, loads and effects; and (3) ensuring an enabling environment for application of the appropriate norms for ensuring structural safety, fire safety and health safety to deal with disaster related response.
Other critical components for a comprehensive approach to promoting safer building construction will include:
- Dissemination of cost effective, appropriate and disaster resistant technologies
- Development of effective means and guidelines for retrofitting and strengthening structures
- Employing “show-how” techniques for grass root level application of good construction practices
- Using the construction medium as a message to propagate safer technologies
- Using media in disseminating information
- Targeting young professionals
- Taking steps to ensure quality in construction.
Component 4 : Community-Based Approaches to Disaster Mitigation
In any disaster, people at the community level must use coping and survival strategies to respond to the situation long before outside help from NGOs or the government arrives. Community based disaster management responds to the growing recognition of the need for community participation to ensure sustainable disaster reduction. The community-based approach also corrects the defects of the top-down approach in development planning and disaster management which has often failed to address local needs and ignored the potential of indigenous resources and capacities.
Component 5 : Sensitization (through IEC tools) on global warming and Disaster,
The community will be made aware on the ill effects of global warming and the various mitigating factors through Short movies, Street plays, and print media. The people need to be sensitized that they have to always be in a state of preparedness to deal with natural disasters and accordingly trainings will be given to students and youth. Multidisciplinary task teams including paramedical staff and ambulance etc will be trained and equipped for emergency services.
Component 6 : Use of information sharing platforms and Interpretation centre:
Information on weather forecasts will be made available on FM/AM radio just like traffic news. Weather forecast based Mobile SMS Broadcasts, and Print media especially in house periodical Environment Report will also be used for info-sharing. An interpretation centre will be established which will be a centre for providing information and research cum multi-functional hub.
Component 7 : Counseling session for psychologically traumatized:
Trained Counselors will be called for organizing camps and counseling sessions.
Component 8 : Livelihood sustenance and support through Livestock Enterprises:
Animal Husbandry Units will be established on subsidized basis so as to assist revival of income generation avenues for the rural households.
