Call to boost local capacity for earthquake mitigation in Assam

GUWAHATI: Assam Governor Prof Mukhi on Friday said, "As Assam is located in a seismically active zone, the state needs to build local capacity to enhance its disaster risk mitigation. Making good use of traditional best practices and indigenous knowledge will also go a long way in reducing the destruction and casualty resulting from earthquake."

Speaking at a seminar on earthquake and mitigation of its after-effects held in Raj Bhavan, the Governor said, "Assam and other North-eastern states need to utilize their available resources to tackle high-intensity earthquakes. Since the region is located on seismically most active zone, the people should have adequate training to reduce the impact of earthquakes and its follow-up manifestations."

Mukhi further said, "When we talk about natural disasters with special reference to Assam, we cannot shift our attention from earthquakes especially when the state falls under the Seismic Zone V. This makes the entire state prone to earthquakes of moderate to very high intensity. Considering the effect of earthquakes on humanity and the absence of any prior warning system, we are very much susceptible to it. Though it is impossible to prevent earthquakes from occurring, it is possible to mitigate the effects and reduce the loss of life and properties."

Referring to Prime Minister Narendra Modi who essentially believes on human capacity building besides a strong and responsive risk management and mitigation system, Mukhi said that the construction sector must imbibe the principles of disaster risk management in all development schemes.

He further said that women's leadership and greater involvement should be central to disaster risk management. He also emphasized developing a network of academic institutions which can work on disaster-related aspects. As part of the network, different universities could specialize in multi-disciplinary research on disaster issues, particularly earthquakes.

Mukhi also said that multi-storeyed buildings should be built with the facility of broad approach roads to enable disaster rescue teams to react to disasters.

The resource persons for the seminar were the Director of IIT Guwahati Dr TG Sitharam, Programme Officer, Risk and Resilience (North East India) UNICEF Anand Prakash Kanoo, Assistant Commandant 01 Bn NDRF Assam HP Kandar and Sanjiv Sinha. The seminar was attended by different stakeholders of disaster risk response and mitigation, faculty members, research scholars and postgraduate students from universities and media personnel.

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