India reduces loss of lives from cyclones to less than 2 percent in last 10 years: PK Mishra

New York: Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister Dr. P.K. Mishra on Friday said India accord high importance to disaster risk reduction issues because it is a central public policy issue.

“We have significantly increased funding earmarked for disaster risk reduction. We have brought about landmark changes in our financing architecture to support the entire spectrum of disaster risk management needs”

Mr Misha made these remarks while, speaking at the Risk Reduction Hub Event at the United Nations headquarters during the High-level meeting of the midterm review of Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (SFDRR) 2015-2030.

Mr Mishra said even state and local governments have access to about 6 billion dollar for disaster risk mitigation over the five years (2021-2025).

He added that this is in addition to resource of 23 billion dollar meant for preparedness, response and recovery. P.K. Mishra said in just over a decade, we have been able to reduce the loss of lives from cyclones to less than 2%.

“We are now developing ambitious mitigation programmes to reduce the risk of losses from all hazards – Landslides, Glacial Lake Outburst Floods, Earthquakes, Forest Fire, Heat Waves, and Lightning” he added.

Higligting the importance of early warning system, he said that India is working assiduously to improve access to early warning.

“We are implementing Common Alerting Protocol, which will integrate Alert Generating Agencies with Disaster Managers and Telecom Service Providers. This will ensure dissemination of geo-targeted alerts in regional languages to reach, each one of 1.3 billion citizens of our country” he said.

Mr Mishra also applauded the UN Secretary General’s initiative on ‘Early Warning for All by 2027’ and said “Our efforts will contribute to achieving the target set by this timely global initiative”.

Under India’s presidency, G20 members have agreed to establish a Working Group on Disaster Risk Reduction.

The five priorities identified by the G20 Working Group – early warning for all, resilient infrastructure, improved financing of DRR, systems and capacities for response and ‘build back better’, and eco-system based approaches to DRR – will provide added impetus to the achievement of Sendai targets globally.

The Meeting was organised India’s National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) and Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), to discuss the Roles of States for Promoting Investments in Disaster Risk Reduction towards Resilient and Sustainable Future.

Ruchira Kamboj, Permanent Representative of India to the United Nations and officers of Indian delegation also participated in the event.