City Development Forum brings people, local government closer

Officials of Nagpur Municipal Corporation along with the members of City Development Forum discussed the strategies to handle natural disasters and formulated a framework of solutions

One of the main objectives of Equi-City Project is to engage stakeholders in finding collaborative solutions for the city through a common platform that is, City Development Forum. Streamlining participatory forums like CDF is crucial as it provides a platform to citizens as well as stakeholders to become a part of governance structure of the city.
Utilizing the already functioning CDF, the Nagpur Municipal Corporation organised a CDF Meeting on June 2, 2018 to discuss the Disaster Management Plan for Nagpur City. Feedback and suggestions from various stakeholders and CDF Members were taken into account. The action helped Nagpur Municipal Corporation to mobilise resources in a participatory manner using an innovative City Development Forum comprising prominent key stakeholders. In the meeting the course of action for the upcoming monsoon season was discussed to prevent any disaster.
As Nagpur City continues to experience a wide variety of natural and human induced disasters. These are adversely impacting the heritage of the city as well. These disasters include earthquakes, floods and drainage management, fires, and wildfires. To distinguish the categories of disaster it may be differentiated into these categories: Water and Climate related disasters, Geological Disasters, Chemical, industrial and nuclear related disasters, Accident related disasters, Biological related disasters.

Highlights of CDF meeting on Disaster Management plan for Nagpur city
Dr Sonawane suggested that citizen engagement forum should be utilised for understanding the expectations of the citizens from NMC during a disaster. He also focused on the collaboration of various NGO’s and Civil Society Organisations for disaster mitigation and risk reduction. He also approached the NCDC Director, GS Saini for providing training to the volunteers regarding disaster management.
Saini suggested that the vulnerability assessment and hazard analysis of Nagpur city should be conducted and after that draft Disaster Management Plan should be prepared and must be shared on a public platform or forum for further scrutiny on the same. He also suggested that hospitals must reserve some beds for emergency situations during a disaster and this must be included in SOP of Disaster.
The Director of Green Vigil Foundation, Kaustav Chatterjee suggested that training of Disaster Management should be given to NCC students, home guards and certificates should also be provided for the same.
VNIT Professor, Sameer Deshkar mentioned that his institution will help in policy making for vulnerability assessment and disaster management. He will also help in making vulnerability assessment map. Girish Gandhi, CDF Convener, suggested the penalization of commercial property owners who don’t follow proper building regulations.
He also suggested that a short term and long term disaster management plan must be in place with involvement of local corporators who represent public participation.
The Additional Commissioner Shantanu Goel proposed that citizen coordination is needed in case of disaster. Also, we need to prioritize the type of emergency situations in case of multiple incidents. Citizen should be made aware of basic mitigation measures. He also suggested that citizen forums like RWA’s and NGO’s should inform to the NMC about risk hotspots because of ongoing metro and road construction activities.
A survey will be done for reducing malfunctioning of electrical poles, transformers during monsoons. He also suggested proper coordination between District Disaster Management Cell (DDMC), PWD, Garden Department and Estate Department.
He concluded the meeting with stressing focus on information dissemination of Disaster Management through media, newspapers, radio, SMS and Wall Painting.

Approach discussed for Disaster Management Plan

Disaster Management involves planning what to do before, during and after a disaster or emergency occurs. Through further understanding these hazards, and assessing a structure’s behaviour to them, we can better prepare
for disasters.
A risk-informed, performance-based approach exists offering opportunities to better understand objectives, identify credible hazards and develop alternatives that allow stakeholders (owners, government, etc.) to make risk-informed decisions as to how best protect heritage and meet disaster mitigation objectives.

This approach provides tremendous value including

Preserving our heritage
Embrace local heritage, resources, and methodologies
Limit damage and aesthetic impact
Cost-effective solutions
Maintain functionality of sites
Enhance life safety
Planning for disasters in advance significantly reduces damage to tangible and intangible heritage, including historic sites, structures and their collections.
Services and Deliverables
Establish Objectives
Hazard Assessments
Risk Assessments
Disaster Prevention Planning
Disaster Mitigation Planning
Emergency Access Assessments
Emergency Egress Assessments
Emergency Drills
Emergency Response
Equipment Planning
Disaster Preparedness Planning
Disaster Response Planning
Disaster Recovery Planning
Capacity Building