Government asks private sector to engage in disaster risk reduction

NEW DELHI: Government today asked the private sector to invest and get itself involved in its efforts toward identifying, assessing and reducing the risks of disasters in the country.

Addressing the sixth annual conference of International Society for Integrated Disaster Risk Management here, Minister of State for Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju said the subject of disaster risk reduction is on government's priority and a lot more investment needs to be done here.

"Without disaster risk reduction any developmental activity will be incomplete," he said.

The minister said global warming and climate change were making the earth more prone to disasters and this year has been perhaps the warmest in recorded history.

He said sustainable development was the key to mitigate the causes of disasters, adding that such calamities were an inevitability due to reckless growth.

"We have to constantly improve our resources to be better prepared and minimise the risks. Compared to the super cyclone that struck Odisha coast in 1999 resulting in more than 10,000 deaths, less than 20 lives were lost during the cyclone of equal intensity two years ago," he said.

The MoS said India was one of the leading countries on the subject of disaster management and over the years it has built capacities to tackle disasters effectively.

Rijiju said India's objective is to make the earth a less vulnerable place to disasters and towards this end, people should be more responsive.

He also informed India will be hosting the 1st Asian Ministerial Conference in November 2016 for Disaster Risk Reduction (AMCDRR) after the introduction of the Sendai Framework.