How to deal with extreme climatic disasters in future?

http://www.dailypioneer.com/state-editions/bhubaneswar/66998-how-to-deal-with-extreme-climatic-disasters-in-future-.html

MONDAY, 21 MAY 2012 21:53

column:development deficit

by SUDARSHAN CHHOTORAY

Since 1998, Odisha has been a victim of severity in climate extremes like heat waves, cyclones, floods and droughts.

Over 30,000 people have lost their lives, millions rendered homeless, trees uprooted, crops damaged, and people lost wealth, resources and livelihoods. Despite all the tall talks about disaster risk reduction, early warning system and disaster preparedness, people still are sitting duck for extreme climatic events.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) recently released Special Report on Managing the Risks of Extreme Events and Disasters to Advance Climate Change Adaptation (SREX) is a great reminder for States like Odisha on how to cope with future climate extremes and challenges in view of rapid changes in climatic conditions.

Sustainable development involves finding pathways that achieves a variety of socio-economic and environmental goals, without sacrificing any one for the sake of the others. Successful reconciliation of multiple goals lies in answer to such questions as who is in control, who sets agendas, who allocates resources, who mediates disputes, and who sets rules of the game. This means that conflicts of interest must be acknowledged and addressed, whether they are between Government departments or sectors.

The effectiveness of actions to reduce, transfer and respond to current levels of disaster risk could be vastly increased. Exploiting potential synergies between disaster risk management and adaptation to climate change will improve management of both current and future risks and strengthen adaptation processes.

In Asia, already over 90 per cent of the global population are exposed to tropical cyclones. Based on data since 1950, evidence suggests that climate change has changed the magnitude and frequency of some extreme weather and climate events in some global regions already.

In the next two or three decades, the expected increase in climate extremes will probably be relatively small compared to the normal year-to-year variations in such extremes. However, as climate change impacts become more dramatic, its effect on a range of climate extremes in Asia will become increasingly important and will play a more significant role in disaster impacts. High level of vulnerability, combined with more severe and frequent weather and climate extremes, may occur in some places in Asia, such as low lying islands and coastal areas.

Existing risk management measures need to be improved as many countries are poorly adapted to current extremes and risks. This would include a wide range of measures such as early warning systems, land use planning, development, enforcement of building codes, improvement to health surveillance, ecosystem management and restoration.

A new balance needs to be struck between measures to reduce risk. An example is the introduction of index-based insurance for non irrigated   crops in Andhra Pradesh. Any delay in greenhouse gas mitigation is likely to lead to more severe and frequent climate extremes in the future and is likely to further contribute to disaster losses.

Evidence suggests that climate change has led to changes in climate extremes such as heat waves, record high temperatures and in many regions heavy precipitation in the past half century, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) said. It added climate extremes or even a series of non-extreme events, in combination with social vulnerabilities and exposure to risks, can produce climate-related disasters.

While some extreme weather and climate events lead to disasters, others do not. Policies to avoid, prepare for, respond to and recover from the risks of disaster can reduce the impact of these events and increase the resilience of people exposed to extreme events, IPCC shows in the report.

A special event was organised in New Delhi during the first week of May involving policymakers, business leaders, academics and civil society organisations from South Asia to share and release the IPCC-SREX report on disaster. The Delhi event forms one of a series of outreach events taking place around the world from April to June in places like Havana (Cuba), Beijing (China), Delhi (India), Bangkok (Thailand), Addis Ababa (Ethiopia), Dakar (Senegal) which are designed to provide information about the possible impacts of climate extremes and disasters by region, and options for managing the potential risks arising from them. The events are being organised by the IPCC, The Overseas Development Institute (ODI), Norway’s Climate and Pollution Agency, Norway’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Climate Development Knowledge Network (CDKN).

The environmental and social factors that influence the risk of disasters vary from region to region, but many of the effective strategies for dealing with disaster risk in a changing climate are similar. Increasing exposure of people and economic assets has been the major cause of long-term increases in economic losses from climate-related disasters. Furthermore, the assessment indicates that in many regions of the world, socio-economic factors will be among the main drivers of future increases in related losses. However, many countries, including developing countries, face severe challenges in coping with climate-related disasters. For them the report is a rich source of knowledge.

The SREX provides an unprecedented level of details regarding observed and expected changes in weather and climate extremes based on a comprehensive assessment of over 1,000 scientific publications. The report’s 592 pages cite thousands of scientific studies and have been subjected to three rounds of review by experts and Governments to ensure that the findings are firmly based in underlying scientific and technical information. A total of 220 authors from 62 countries worked on the report, for which 18,784 outside experts and Government review comments were received in the three rounds of formal review.

The report was originally proposed in 2008 by Norway and the UN International Strategy for Disaster Reduction. The IPCC was established in 1988 by the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) and the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) to assess scientific information related to climate change, evaluate its environmental and socio-economic consequences and formulate realistic response strategies. The IPCC has produced a series of Assessment Reports (in 1990, 1995, 2001 and 2007.) The fifth assessment report will appear in four stages in 2013 and 2014. It has also produced several Special Reports of which SREX is the latest. It does not conduct any research itself or monitor climate-related data. In 2007, the IPCC was awarded the Noble Peace Prize with US Vice-President Al Gore.

Meanwhile, there is a need for countries to reassess their vulnerability and exposure in order to better manage disaster risk. This needs to be fully integrated into planning processes, including through improved continuous data collection for vulnerability and exposure to changing floods and cyclone. It will be important to strengthening new and existing partnerships for reducing risk, including with private sector and bilateral and multilateral agencies. Mutual learning within a region will be important. There is also a need to strengthen the integration of financial and programming mechanisms to support adaptation and risk management across development sectors. It will be also important to highlight changing climate-related disaster risks to policy makers working in other policy domains.

We need to reaffirm the importance of mitigating greenhouse gases globally in order to avoid the worst climate extremes and their associated impacts across continents and regions. There must be consideration that in some cases today’s climate extremes will be tomorrow’s ‘normal’ weather. Tomorrow’s climate extremes may therefore stretch our imagination and challenge our capacity to mange change as never before.

And finally, there is a need for a much smarter development and economic policies that consider changing disaster risk as a core component. Without this it is likely that an increasing number of people and assets will be adversely impacted by future climate extremes and disasters.

(The writer is a senior freelance journalist)

We need to review and revisit Odisha Climate Change Action Plan

DEVELOPMENT DEFICIT

BY SUDARSHAN CHHOTORAY

We need to review and revisit Odisha Climate Change Action Plan

The hurry on which Odisha Climate Change Action Plan (OCCAP) has been finalised without adequate consultation with all stake holders has raised a many eyebrows. Though Government of India has already announced the inclusion of all State Action Plans and National Plan on Climate Change under 12th Plan it needs to mention here that, state plans like OCCAP is grossly inadequate to address the vulnerability of the people of the state. Once fund mobilised there will be a mechanism for better use of Budget and sanctioned amount besides monitoring mechanism at Central level but what about state level, there is no mention of it in OCCAP.

The casualness with which the Odisha Climate Change Action Plan (OCCAP) has been approached calls for a total rejection of this process. Climate change and its associated phenomena are primarily an issue of justice, fairness and dignified survival of the masses of people in the tropics – it is primarily a political issue, multi-scalar, global as well as local. However, the global elite (including the elites in India) have tried to keep it confined within a techno-scientific discourse and ignore the political and justice aspect of climate change. This approach has ensured that the vast majority of the marginalised and poor people in the world have been condemned to an existence of massive livelihood and survival uncertainty at best and mass genocide at the worst. The targets accepted in the various climate summits i.e. a permissible rise of 2 deg. Centigrade ensures that the poor majority of the world is condemned to suffer massively while the elites can escape the consequences of their consumption.

In this context, a democratic polity in a country like India would stand by its majority, and seek to ensure that their interest is protected in the global arena. It also becomes important that the state government of Odisha, which is extremely vulnerable to climate change, would keep the interests of their citizenry uppermost in its plans and proposals. The high percentage of rural population and dependence of majority on natural resource based livelihoods implies that people of Odisha are extremely vulnerable to climate change and its projected effects. At the same time, very low purchasing power ensures that the resilience that comes from being part of a globalised, market based economy is unavailable to the majority of Odisha’s people.

In this situation, the OCCAP, as prepared by consultants engaged by World Bank and DFID (which represent the interests of the western over consuming elites and global corporations) fails in its very inception to address the core issue discussed above. Politically, the OCCAP is a purely neo-liberal document, prepared in a techno-bureaucratic fashion, wherein public participation has become a farce. It is undemocratic procedurally as well as in substance, and serves only the interest of its western sponsors and the miniscule ruling elite of Odisha. The focus of the OCCAP remains on extractive economy feeding the consumption needs of the western and Indian over consumers, while paying only lip service to the vast majority of citizens of Odisha. The emphasis on energy sector, while trying to become the greatest centre of coal based thermal power production in the world, signifies these interests. Nowhere is the environmental and social costs of this ambition, including the locally significant heat Island effects which has played havoc in places such as Talcher and Jharsuguda has been mentioned. If this is the response of the Odisha state to the future crisis facing us, the majority of the people of Odisha are doomed.

The civil society of Odisha, quit objected the process both in procedure and substance. However, though participated in post draft discussions and had provideed hints of how alternate and people friendly action plans can emerge through participatory and democratic processes. Procedurally, the plan needs to be bottom up, based on large-scale public consultations starting from Panchayat levels. Let the people know what are the possible impacts of climate change and the fact that they are being sacrificed at the altar of overconsumption. Substantively, the focus of the plan must be on vulnerability (ranging from scales of households, villages and regions), livelihood security and food security. It need to add, food security separately as the collateral effects of climate change in combination with global politics of food commodities (as evidenced by the recent global food prices spikes) ensures that within the next few years, food itself may be priced out of reach of majority of the people of Odisha.

All mitigation efforts as well as adaptation efforts must be evaluated on these three criteria. Otherwise even mitigation efforts such as carbon sequestration through trees or bio-fuel production has massive potential to displace livelihoods as well as make people more vulnerable. This is already being observed in context of various plantation programmes being implemented by the Forest Department in Odisha.

They reiterated that climate change is primarily a justice issue. Majority of the people of Odisha, whose contribution to global warming has been close to zero, are going to suffer because of the cumulative overconsumption and greed of a small proportion of world’s population, who unfortunately hold all reins of power at global and national scales. This is intolerable and highly unjust, and the fact that the CCAP doesn’t even mention this fact, and tries to protect the interests of the same over consumers, implies that the government of Odisha is blind to this injustice to its own people.

Thus this civil society submission is not only a notice to the state of Odisha, it is also a call for action to all concerned to stand up against this injustice and seek to protect the interests of the people of Odisha.
Basic principles and priorities, on which the OCCAP is premised, need to be clearly defined in the beginning. Defining targeted/Prioritized constituencies as per vulnerabilities: 1-Geographies: Apart from Coastal, Drought prone Western Odisha, over-stressed mining and industrial belts (viz. Talcher, Jharsuguda, Kalinga Nagar),2-Communities : Tribal, Fishermen, Salt Workers, marginal and small farmers,3-Sectors : More focus on primary sectors like Agriculture, high ecological foot print sectors like energy, mining and industry. Defining approach: Instead of overwhelming focus on mitigation, adaptation and prevention (restrain) required to be provided more attention. Treatment of disease rather than treatment of symptom should be the focus. In this context, whether the existing development path should be continued or reoriented in climate change context need to be clearly spelt out.
Need of adopting a Paradigm shift in Process of OCCAP formulation: Considering the important and differential implications of climate change on common and vulnerable communities in the different geographies of the state, there is no alternative to a bottom-up, inclusive and more democratic process of CCAP development through multi-stakeholders dialogues. Therefore, the climate change response and preparedness consultation must start at least from block-level (preferably from GP level) upwards.
Avoiding hurry: Climate change is a complex phenomenon with more political undertones and manifestations and often used by the neo-liberal investment lobby as a ploy to drive economic gain from poor countries. More than 90% of the state’s citizen may not be also aware of the climate change concept, process and implications except for the changes they see in temperature, rainfall or coastal erosion, which could be mostly local or cyclic (temporal phenomenon). To have an informed debate and inclusive participation of climate victims, vulnerable and common citizens on climate change action plans and policy of the state, GOO must be prepared to invest time and resources in building awareness, capacity and platforms. Such hurried attempts with dictated participations of elites have the danger of making the state and its poor citizens more vulnerable.
Projections of climate change implications and Vision Plan: Civil societies strongly feel the need of analyzing the climate change implications of ongoing development trajectory to develop a future calendar with sector-wise carbon emission/ecological foot prints till 2050. Based on this calendar, an alternate strategy with moratoriums on foot-print sectors and concessions/incentives to hand-print (carbon absorbing) sectors (including potential sectors) must be provided. Budgetary allocation should follow this strategy, unlike the present plan which suggests vice versa.
Vulnerability mapping: Mapping of vulnerability to climate change contexts (as per the projections in para 2 above) with use of GIS tools incorporating agro-climatic, poverty geographic, socio-economic and cultural layers is a prerequisite to prioritize resource allocations in a OCCAP. It is also required to add temporal projections to it taking into consideration state’s ambitious industrialization and mining drive. This has been completely ignored in the present draft.
Prioritized Prospective Land use plan: Considering already intensified conflicts around land, water and forest resources in Odisha along with the multi-dimensional pressures on them by neo-liberal land-use lobbies (bio fuel, mining, hydro-power, industrial, SEZ etc.), GOO must consider preparing Prospective Land-Use Plan keeping larger time horizon in mind in the context of climate change.
Implementation through Inter-sectoral Integration: in the climate change context, Vulnerability, Food Security and Livelihoods are key cross-thematic areas. Therefore realigning of sectoral priorities along these cross-thematic contexts, will make the Climate Change preparedness more meaningful and effective. Proposed Agency for Climate Change should function directly under Chief Minister (could be Planning and Coordination Department or an Autonomous body), in line with handling of national action plan by PMO, to oversee, coordinate and monitor the CCAP. It is not logical to be vested with Forest and Environment Department, who has not good reputation of handling regulatory body like Odisha Pollution Control Board (OPCB).
Source of investment: Tax payers’ money especially from a very low-emission or net-absorption state like Odisha should not be spent on high cost mitigation measures, neither the poor citizens of the state should be allowed to be burdened with loan from multilateral agencies. All big investments towards clean technology should be paid by the polluting countries from the west.
Addressing Vulnerability: Planning Climate Change Actions as per agro climatic zone, OCCAP must address vulnerability of small and marginal, poor and tribal farmers; it must promote farmers’ institutions to interact with other stakeholders, Strategy on Weather insurance and Backup plan for disasters must be clearly spelled out. Strategy to combat land degradation, to promote crop diversification, to rationalize use of fertilizers and pesticides, Integration required with animal husbandry, agro forestry, Seed security and sovereignty, Organic farming requires more attention in terms market promotion, targeted subsidy/ incentives, local product-PDS/market link etc; define the transition road map and Incentivization of carbon-neutral or net-carbon-absorbing farming practices
Coast and Disaster: Common and vulnerable community of Odisha coast viz. farmers, fishers and salt workers are conspicuously absent in the action plan. They seem to have fallen on fault lines between sectoral strategies. The action plan doesn’t look at the political dimensions, existing legal frameworks and governance. There is a need to develop an appropriate legal (land administration) framework to tackle eventual coastal displacement and resettlement. Assessment and demonstration of tools and technology to tackle coastal erosion viz. geotube.
More focus required on disaster adaptation/mitigation than on existing focus on disaster management. Drought-related vulnerabilities and action points required to be provided clrear attention. When erosion in Satbhaya is attributed to construction of port at Paradeep, GOO need to spell out the need of so many (12) ports and their impact on coastal habitations. With imminent salinization of coastal drinking water there will be heavy impact on pregnancy as already accepted by IPCC, which is required to be addressed by CCAP
Apart from these, Government need to do more on, Flood adaptive and drought tolerant crops, cropping systems and adaptive food-security mechanisms – both traditional and improvised require prioritized policy, research and action support. Need to spell out strategy on conservation and governance of coastal wetlands vis-à-vis their role in flood moderation, local livelihoods and food security. The already visible livelihoods loss of salt workers, traditional fishermen (along coast and Chilika) requires addressing. The conflicts between Coastal Zone Management (CZM) and Marine Fishing Regulation Act requires to be addressed

LIVILIHOOD CHALLENGES IN COASTAL ODISHA-WOMEN FISHERS SHOW THE WAY

LIVILIHOOD CHALLENGES IN COASTAL ODISHA-WOMEN FISHERS SHOW THE WAY
http://udayindia.in/english/content_01december2012/state-scan2.html

ICZMP goes awry in trouble-torn Odisha coast

ICZMP goes awry in trouble-torn Odisha coast

MONDAY, 19 MARCH 2012 22:58

COLUMN: DEVELOPMENT DEFICIT

BY SUDARSHAN CHHOTORAY

The Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM) project which is being
implemented in the State since 2010 as a pilot project seems to be a
non starter as it is lacking clarity on many fronts from
inter-sectoral collaboration to decentralisation of management
responsibility and accountability.

The Rs 227-crore World Bank-aided project under the Union Ministry of
Environment and Forests (MoEF), which has initially targeted for 160
km coastal stretch of Odisha in two segments from Gopalpur to Chilika
and Paradeep to Dhamra, has failed to identify key coastal issues like
sea erosion, livelihood, habitat loss and pollution. Rather, due to
lack of clarity on regulatory framework, institutional structure and
mechanism, besides the basic differences on coastal zone management
and Integrated Coastal Zone Management fuel controversies.
Though the project is in its initial stages of implementation but
rapid urbanisation and industrialisation along the coast, growing
conflicts, competitions and degradation of coastal ecosystem have
posed severe management challenges, which need to be of utmost
importance as far as conservation is concerned.

However, the entire coast is getting stressed on account of human
interventions, development projects and climate change. Apart from
these, the other key drivers of coastal change are ports, harbours,
tourism, agriculture, horticulture, salt production, energy (power
plants), aquaculture, industries and urbanisation, etc. Odisha has
planned to bring 12 more ports besides raising capacity of the three
existing major ports at Paradeep, Gopalpur and Dhamra. These port
projects are part of the proposed 187 ports in the country.
Environmentalists have expressed serious reservations on these port
proposals.

A number of Special Economic Zones (SEZs) and mega industrial projects
like Posco, Vedanta University, nuclear plants and tourism circuits
are coming up in Odisha coast. All the mega projects either directly
contravene the basic objectives of the ICZM Project or challenge the
basic edifice of the Integrated Coastal Zone Management Plan (ICZMP).

Interestingly, most vulnerable coastal stretches like Chilika to
Paradeep, Gopalpur to Sonepur and Dhamra to Digha have been left out
from ICZMP. Four major plans have been envisaged under the project for
management of shoreline, pollution, disaster and resources besides
taking up issues like tourism, fisheries and climate change. And, it
has been proposed that all these plans need to be approved by village
panchayat, District Coastal Zone Management Authority and State
Coastal Zone Management Authority. Involvements of NGOs, CBOs and
finalisation of institutional structures have been stressed.

Meanwhile, many beneficiaries have doubted the success of the
implementation of the projects as many of their components do not suit
them. Rather, they create more conflicts among the targeted groups.
Instead of reviving the old STEP groups and SHGs which were formed
under various supports and sponsored schemes of both the Union and
State Governments, the State Project Management Unit (SPMU) is forming
its own groups, providing training and sponsoring exposure visits,
which have become expensive and unnecessary.

Further, Integrated Coastal Zone Management Society of Odisha (ICOMS)
under the State Forest and Environment department has attempted to
re-implement sea weed, coral reef and related failed schemes or
projects which were experimented earlier in Chilika by reinvesting in
them.

The ICZMP talks about erosion, conservation, eco-tourism, heritage
preservation, pollution control and livelihood security but it is
short of a protection mechanism for endangered coastal villages, save
a plan to set up a Geo-Synthetic Wall worth Rs 19 crore at Penth
village near Rajnagar to check erosion. It has no proposal for
villages like Podampeta and Ramayapatna in Ganjam or Satabhaya in
Kendrapara, the villages which are still facing the wrath of the
nature. Starting from the northern coasts of Odisha to the southern
coasts, many villages have been the victims of the wrath of ocean.

The Odisha Government’s Draft Climate Change Action Plan with a huge
budget of Rs 17,000 crore seeks to help industries more by reducing
their expenditure on adapting to climate change, while providing
hardly any fund for the victims of climate change at Saatabhaya. In
2005, the Centre had included many seaside villages under another
World Bank assisted scheme ‘National Cyclone Risk Mitigation Programme
(NCRMP).’ The idea was to build shelter belts to save the seaside
villages and towns from the onslaught of cyclones, storms, tidal waves
or even tsunami etc. But yet there is no information on how far these
projects worked to the extent of protecting the coastal villages.

Amidst all these, the basic purpose of the ICZMP which is people’s
participation in project implementation is yet to be realised.
Basically, the primary stakeholders like fishermen, salt workers,
turtle savers and artisans of the coastal areas were not invited for
the National Workshop on ICZM Planning which was held on March 16 and
17 at Bhubaneswar. That’s the reason National Fish workers Forum (NFF)
has already submitted a memorandum to the Government of India to
withdraw the project, which according to them will pave the way for
privatising the coastal resources thereby threatening the livelihood
of millions of marine fishermen.

At a time when industrialists are queuing up to penetrate into Odisha,
nobody is concerned over the extreme climatic condition of the State.
Odisha is experiencing the most extreme climatic condition for a
decade like heat wave, cyclone, drought and flood. Sustainable
development requires protection of livelihood of locals, facilitating
income generating activities and considering environment and
ecological concerns thus ensuring the safety of the biodiversity and
ecosystem. But, while designing the development policies and
programmes, we take less or little care of the ecological concerns.

Odisha coast which is the home to 26.37 per cent of State’s population
and 18.25 per cent of State’s geographical area coupled with its 482
km long coastline spread over six coastal districts is endowed with
rich natural resources along with fisheries, mines, minerals and
forest. The untapped and unexplored coastal resources are constantly
falling prey to climatic vagaries, natural disasters and ill-conceived
development projects.

For millions of rural artisans and coastal communities now face the
dual threats of growing degradation of natural resources and
increasing Government control over resources and ecological services.
As a result, they have been living with constant fear of nature’s fury
and fast loss of their livelihood. That’s why the known developed and
dominant coastal region has the poverty ratio of 32 per cent against
the State’s average 47 per cent.

Development projects are good only when they engage with communities
and beneficial for local population. Sometimes unsustainable ways of
planning and setting up projects without community consents have paved
the way for more conflicts and alienations. Such has been the
situation in the coastal areas in the State. Thousands of coastal
artisans, salt workers and fishermen have left the area for Surat,
Mumbai, Kerala and Bengalure etc in search of alternative jobs.

The situation further aggravated following illegal land encroachment
by prawn mafias and intervention of non-fishermen in fishing
activities. It has been a day-to-day affair in Ganjam where people
come in contact with deadly chlorine gas. Despite several
notifications, the caustic soda plant Jayashree Chemicals is releasing
chlorine gas almost daily. Hundreds of gas victims have petitioned
against the plant demanding its closure. Even the Rushikulya sea mouth
known as the second largest nesting site for Olive Ridley turtles is
not spared as liquidified chemical wastes of the plant go straight to
the sea from this channel. Survey undertaken by Geological Survey of
India found mercury content in Historic Palur Saheb Canal.

-The writer is a senior freelance journalist

PUBLISHED IN THE PIONEER ON 20TH MARCH 2012

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trouble-torn-odisha-coast.html