Kamal Kishore on Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure

To
give an impetus to the global CDRI, two International Workshops on Disaster
Resilient Infrastructure were held in 2018 and 2019, respectively, in New Delhi.
Both the workshops saw participation from around the globe.
All
the efforts culminated at the United Nations Secretary General’s Climate Action
Summit in New York when Shri Modi on September 23 2019 announced the launch of
the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI) and invited all
Member States of the UN to join it.
Aapda
Samvaad spoke with Shri Kamal Kishore, Member, NDMA, who is spearheading this
coalition to know more. Some excerpts:
Q. Please tell us about CDRI in
some detail.
A.
CDRI is a knowledge and capacity development platform where developing
countries will benefit from access to know-how and developed countries that are
in a phase of replacing their own infrastructure will learn from the new
methods and approaches that are being adopted.
It
will bring together both developed and developing countries around the theme of
resilience of infrastructure.
Hon'ble
Prime Minister announcement about the launch of the coalition was followed by a
special event held at the margins of the Sustainable Development Goal Summit on
September 25 2019. The special event was chaired by Minister of Environment,
Forest and Climate Change Shri Prakash Javadekar and co-chaired by Mami
Mizutori, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Disaster Risk
Reduction in the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction.
High-level
officials from Japan, the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, Turkey,
Bhutan, Qatar, the Maldives among others participated in the special event. In
addition, various multilateral organisations World Bank, United Nations
Development Programme, the Global Commission for Adaptation also attended the
event. All of them supported the idea of a CDRI and expressed their desire to
work closely as a part of the CDRI. In fact, a number of countries present at
the meeting expressed their desire to be founding members of the CDRI.
Q. How is this coalition different
from other global initiatives on DRR?
A.
CDRI is one of the first initiatives that work at the intersection of Climate
Change, DRR and Infrastructure Development. It's an initiative that will bring
together a range of stakeholders towards building the resilience of infrastructure
systems worldwide. Many global initiatives are focussed on either South-South
cooperation or transfer of technology and know-how from North to South. CDRI is
a multidirectional initiative so that everyone can learn from everyone and are
in it together.
We
look at infrastructure as not just assets but as a system in which no country
can work alone. This is because in an interconnected world, infrastructure
systems are connected globally and the shipping industry is only as resilient
as the weakest port in the network.
Q. What are the specific
infrastructure classes that the coalition would focus on?
A.
The coalition aims to look at physical, social as well as environmental infrastructure.
In the beginning, we will prioritise physical infrastructure because that is
where a lot of investment is going and that is where we see a lot of knowledge
and capacity gaps. The four big sectors that we are going to focus on include
Power, Telecommunications, Transport and Water infrastructure. In addition to
this, we will work on disaster control infrastructure - ones with one of their
major purposes as controlling disasters - such as dams, embankments, sea walls,
etc.
Q. Why is the coalition important
for India?
A.
First of all, this will help us connect with the state-of-the-art knowledge. We
would be able to co-create new knowledge with other actors in this space. At
the same time, it will also be an opportunity for us to share the lessons that we are learning
through infrastructure development in our country.
A
huge portion of the future infrastructure
development is likely to take place in India and China. Consequently, there
will be a lot of learning. In that sense, we have an opportunity to get it
right and lock in resilience as opposed to risk in these infrastructure
systems. We can also engage with the rest of the world and share lessons that
we learn along the way.
In
sum total, we will benefit in terms of knowledge and capacity, and will be able
to contribute to the global system of infrastructure development.
Q. Any remarkable examples of
disaster-resilient infrastructure in India.
A.
A very topical example is the underground cabling of power systems in a few
towns in Odisha. Wherever it was done, the electricity connection was up and
running within days after the recent Cyclone Fani. Restoration of power took
much longer in other parts of the State. Yet another example is the Delhi Metro. It
could pick up the seismic signals when the Nepal Earthquake struck in 2015 and
all trains plying then stopped almost instantaneously. However,
a lot more needs to be done.
Q. How are we integrating DRR in
smaller infrastructure projects?
A.
The standards for smaller infrastructure projects have to take into account the
hazard context in which they are being built. They have to now begin to look at
how will they operate in an environment of uncertainty emanating from climate
change. Also, there is a lot of focus on looking at how resilient an
infrastructure asset is but we need to look at how it creates or reduces downstream
risk or the criticality of that infrastructure in different portions. Say, for
example, there may be a resilient, built to standards road network but there
may be some portions of that network which are more critical because we don't
have any redundancy. In those portions, our risk tolerance would be even lower.
Therefore, one would expect them to be built to even higher standards.
Q. How will CDRI play a role in
making these smaller infrastructure projects resilient?
A.
CDRI will act as a knowledge and capacity development platform. It will also
act as a clearinghouse of the latest knowledge on resilient infrastructure, and by
sharing the same with stakeholders involved in the infrastructure sector in the
country.
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