The Need for Resilient Infrastructure in India
Context:
This past month, Delhi faced unprecedented electricity demand due to relentlessly high temperatures, leading to frequent power cuts in Delhi and neighbouring areas. Central and eastern India experienced similar or worse situations.
More on news:
- The lack of electricity, combined with abnormally high night temperatures, made lives miserable and could have contributed to several heat-related deaths.
- It highlights the stress that critical infrastructure faces from extreme weather events and disasters.
- Besides power systems, telecommunications, transportation, health services, and cyber systems also face disruptions, complicating crisis situations.
- Making critical infrastructure resilient to extreme events and disasters is crucial for climate change adaptation.
- The breakdown of essential services hampers relief, rescue, and recovery, amplifying risks and adding to the devastation.
Mounting Losses from Disasters:
- Economic Losses: Despite reduced human casualties, economic losses from extreme weather are rising. From 2018-2023, states spent over Rs 1.5 lakh crore on disaster aftermath.
- Long-term Costs: Long-term impacts like job losses and reduced land fertility are worsening. By 2030, heat stress may cause 34 million job losses in India.
- Food wastage due to poor transport costs $9 billion annually.
- Unaccounted Damage: Damage to critical infrastructure often goes uncounted, especially when privately owned, causing major disruptions.
About CDRI: 
Incorporating Resilience:
- Current Plans: Most infrastructure sectors have disaster management plans, but progress is slow, and much remains vulnerable.
- Hospitals, airports, railways, and telecoms are making improvements.
- CDRI in Odisha: A CDRI study revealed Odisha’s electricity infrastructure is fragile, with many substations, poles, and lines vulnerable to high winds and ageing. Similar issues likely affect other coastal states.
- Future Development: India must build climate-smart, sustainable, and disaster-resilient infrastructure from the start to avoid costly retrofitting later.
- A set of 38 indicators was identified to measure global progress in the implementation of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction.
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Sendai Framework The Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (2015-2030) adopted at the Third UN World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction in Sendai, Japan, on March 18, 2015. |
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