Monday, November 17, 2008
India is a densely populated country, with a large percentage of its people poor, served by an underdeveloped and inadequate infrastructure. This results in a higher rate of devastation from natural disasters, as we have seen in Gujarat. Technology can play a major role in controlling the loss of life and property at these times. But without proper policy support and management skills, technology is ineffective.
Policy
India needs a national agency — akin to the US Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA) — to focus exclusively on disaster management. Currently, the Ministry of Agriculture oversees disaster response, though it lacks expertise! At the same time, the states need systems to implement the policies and procedures put forth by the national agency. There’s nothing new in these ideas — we have always known these things. Yet nothing has really been done about it. Until we get some kind of synchronized policy framework at the national, state and district levels and focus on coordination, communication, and management, no amount of technology will help.
Technology
In disasters like the Gujarat quake, the first 100 hours are the most crucial for saving lives. Every minute matters. After the Gurajat quake struck, telecommunications links were down for more than two days. People lay buried alive for days. Later, as aid reached the affected areas, truckloads of emergency supplies reportedly waited at the airport for several days, paralyzed by confusion over how to get life-saving materials to the injured. Volunteers who arrived at the disaster site were not properly coordinated. Look carefully at these circumstances and you’ll see that two areas of infrastructure technology were needed: access and databases. (We are not discussing technologies for removal of debris, and so on. That is a separate discussion, beyond the purview of this article).
When disaster strikes, re-establishing telecommunication links with the affected areas is crucial to effectively use available resources and to disseminate ground information to the rest of the world. People want to know what happened to family members, friends, businesses and property. It is also critical to know how many are dead or hurt, how many are in the hospital, how many doctors are on duty, what the conditions are at treatment facilities, and what resources are needed. This is entirely a communication issue.
Modular mobile wireless exchanges are the workable answer. They can be flown into the affected areas within two hours of the disaster. These satellite-based systems, used only in disaster conditions, would have backup battery power, so the units work even when there is no electricity. Depending on the location and scope of the disaster, the exchanges could support voice, fax, videoconferencing, e-mail and Internet access.
In contrast to this, authorities in Gujarat attempted to fix existing communications systems that had already been destroyed! That always takes a long time. What is needed is a temporary overlay system that doesn’t require existing working infrastructure. These systems exist today, and wireless technologies are the most effective in these situations.
Databases
Access technologies will depend on existing databases with detailed information pertaining to specific physical areas. These databases will include vital statistics such as: medical resources available in the area; local transportation that can be pooled and deployed rapidly for help; detailed maps, weather information, terrain, and the impact of similar disasters in the past in the same area; the kinds of clothing effective in the area, profile of population density in the area; and the locations of schools, nursing homes and so on. All of this has to be prearranged and recorded in massive, redundant databanks, for every part of the country. It must be instantly accessible by relief agencies in times of crisis. In Gujarat, alas, nothing of this sort was available. Everything was ad hoc, chaotic. This reduced the effectiveness of relief efforts a great deal.
Remote sensing satellite technology can be used very effectively to collect physical terrain data. All database resources have to be integrated with the newly designed disaster management systems. At the same time, it is crucial to develop dynamic databases of information being collected during the disaster relief operations. These could be mined by software programs to effectively streamline relief efforts. That would provide a better picture of the resources needed in each area, and how to get them there.
Today, global positioning systems in cars are able to pinpoint a location within five to ten meters. Using the same technology, we should be able to scan the area of an earthquake by satellite. By comparing existing databases to the new information, authorities would be able to pinpoint high impact areas. All of this is being done manually in Gujarat by people walking around the entire area. Somebody should be looking at this on a screen!
Management
Once policies and technology are in place, questions remain: How do you manage disaster relief? Who provides leadership? Management systems must be built on expertise, communication and coordination. Team structures at the national, state, district and village/city level have to be predefined.
The government has to be the most involved in this area. Recently, the government of India established a committee of five secretaries to investigate the earthquake! Neither volunteer groups nor NGOs were appointed to serve the panel. The secretaries have no expertise in disaster response, and thus they obviously can’t get the job done. As a result, India’s disaster preparedness will never improve.
Training in all of these facets of disaster management cannot be undermined. Potential relief personnel have to be put through drills, akin to fire drills. In crisis situations, the general public gets very emotional. Relief staff should have the interpersonal skills to manage this. There must also be total media and public relations management during these times. That, too, requires proper training.
This earthquake has really stirred everybody up in India. People are talking now about disaster management systems. People tend to forget these things over time, though unfortunately this has been such a major blow that it will be hard to forget. Hopefully, something will get done. Several initiatives need to be taken, but in India nobody thinks this way, least of all the leadership.
I assure you, if 100 smart people get to work on this, in six months India will have the best disaster management system in the world. Standards are available and there’s been a lot of international discussion and experience. India needs to tap into the resources that many foreign organizations have offered.
Individually, people at a personal level are doing their best and helping everybody. They’re going beyond their caste and religious boundaries. Not only buildings have been leveled, but the society itself has been leveled. All of this now needs top-down management and leadership to create effective disaster management systems, driven by technologies available today.
Sam Pitroda is chairman and CEO of WorldTel. He has been a founder of several companies in Europe and North America and the first chairman of India’s Telecom Commission. To exchange ideas with Pitroda, write to pitroda@corp.siliconindia.com.
This article is based on a telephone conversation with Mr. Pitroda.
