Climate change and disasters pose a serious risk to sustainable urban development, resulting in escalating human and economic costs across the world. Consequently, city authorities and other urban actors face the challenge of integrating risk reduction and adaptation strategies into their work. However, related knowledge and expertise are still scarce and fragmented.
The International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction was started in 1989 after the United Nations General Assembly called for a day to be dedicated to promote a global culture of risk-awareness and disaster reduction. Observed every year on October 13, the day celebrates how people and communities around the world are reducing exposure to disasters and raising awareness about the importance of reining in the risks that they face.
At the third UN World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction in Sendai, Japan, in 2015, the international community was reminded that disasters hit hardest at the local level with the potential to cause loss of life and great social and economic upheaval. Sudden onset of disasters displace millions of people every year. Disasters, many of which are exacerbated by climate change, have a negative impact on investment in sustainable development and the desired outcomes.
A lot of people living in Bhubaneswar are at greater risk from climate change. A study says exposure to risk is often exacerbated by several factors common to low-lying areas, slums, lack of adequate infrastructure and services, unsafe housing, inadequate open spaces, fire hazards, and poor public health. Millions living in Bhubaneswar face the risk of frequent flooding, heatwave, disruption in food ecosystem and demand for electricity and fire safety. The consequences of climate change will make it even worse. It means the government must put Bhubaneswar and other urban areas on the frontline of the struggle to adapt to climate change and reduce the risk of natural disasters. There is neither any short cut nor excuses.
Bhubaneswar, Puri, Kataka, Raurkela, Baleswar, Sambalpur, Brahampur are often overwhelmed by the number and complexity of services they need to provide. On top of this, thousands of new residents arrive every day requiring housing, basic services. Add climate change to the challenges, and cities are already facing an enormous burden.
COVID-19 sharpened the state’s attention on the capacity of these towns and cities to withstand the impacts of systemic risks such as pandemics, highlighting features that contribute to greater resilience as well as greater vulnerability. COVID also brought into focus the impacts of systemic risks on these urban areas, with severe economic and social consequences extending across sectors.
Cities are complex systems which host a heavy concentration of people, services and infrastructure, and they often face challenges relating to transportation, adequate and reliable access to resources such as water and energy, and conflicts over space. Climate variability and change bring critical additional risks to these already challenging urban settings. Many cities are situated in high-risk locations, along coastlines and on floodplains, like Kataka, Puri, Gopalpur etc. As urbanisation expands outwards into surrounding areas, they experience influxes of population from rural regions and climate refugees. Consequently, their exposure to climate and disaster risk is increasing further.
Many cities have developed or are designing planned adaptation strategies to help people and businesses adapt to climate change. For example, in Mexico City, where a complexity of pressures threatens the supply and management of its water resources, a newly-designed action plan and strategy are aimed at strengthening adaptive capacity and resilience of ecosystems, infrastructure, production systems, people and their wellbeing against the negative impacts of climate change. In order to improve the quantity and quality of water supply, the city has a goal of installing 10,000 household rainwater harvesting systems annually. This is in direct response to opinion poll results showing that while 80% of the city’s population was willing to instal such systems in their homes, only one in three claimed to have the resources to do so.
Cities have also sought to adapt public infrastructure and investments to present and future climate risks. For example, in Melbourne, a major risk-focused adaptation strategy published in 2009 saw 100 climate change adaptation actions implemented. These include increased storm water harvesting to irrigate parks and street trees, investment in green space, canopy cover and enhancing biodiversity, to increase nature’s ability to absorb emissions, reduce the impacts of heatwaves and reduce risk of flash flooding. The city’s Climate Change Adaptation Strategy Refresh 2017 includes further measures, such as increasing permeable surfaces to reduce the impact of flooding.
Various cities have also been implementing smaller public adaptation projects, with wide-ranging impacts. In Tanzania’s Dar es Salaam, a concrete seawall not only prevents beach erosion from waves and allows the beach to recover from storms, but has also helped develop the area into a recreational zone, encouraging residents to venture outdoors. This has enabled small businesses to flourish, and newly-planted trees add to the green environment. The encouragement of green spaces and infrastructure has also been evident in projects such as vehicle parking management in Jaipur, utilisation of unused and vacant spaces for green space and tree planting in Bangkok, and micro-gardening in Dakar (Senegal).
Therefore, Bhubaneswar along with other cities must adopt strategies and actions that can enhance their resilience to climate change and natural disasters by becoming a lighthouse for the state. Resilience is the ability of a system to cope with shocks and stresses, and to recover and adapt to changing conditions. By building resilience, cities can not only protect themselves from the adverse effects of climate change and natural disasters but also create opportunities for sustainable development and improved quality of life for their citizens.
It is also important at the local level that capacities need to be strengthened urgently. The Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction is people-focused and action-oriented in its approach to disaster risk reduction and applies to the risk of small-scale and large-scale disasters caused by man-made or natural hazards, as well as related environmental, technological and biological hazards and risks. In reality there’s no place like home. It is where we seek comfort, safety and shelter. But when floods rise, extreme heat takes hold or other hazards strike, the place meant to protect us can become the frontline of disaster.
That is why the International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction focuses this year on ‘Resilience Starts at Home.’ The message is simple: everyone deserves a home that is safe, affordable and able to withstand the hazards around it.
Making that possible takes more than individual preparedness. Governments need safer planning and building standards; businesses must put long-term safety before short-term gains; communities need information, resources and a voice in decisions about where and how they live.
Around the world, solutions are already taking shape — from families moving to safer homes in the Philippines to centuries-old earthen building techniques keeping homes cooler across West Africa to Odisha erasing its misfortune caused by Super Cyclone on this day in 1999, that took away tens of thousands of human life, hundreds of thousands of animals and resulted in the region’s economic collapse. It taught us how to achieve zero casualty in terms of human loss by evacuating millions of people and animals from likely affected regions to cyclone shelters or safer places. It’s a story of disaster management and how a state transformed itself in little over a decade as a role model with clear examples in Disaster Risk Reduction.
Resilience is not only about rebuilding after disaster, it is about starting before disaster strikes, and it starts at home and that’s where Odisha stands today.
