Building a Disaster Free India
DISASTERS UPDATE
www.nidm.net
Issue No.1646
Date: 26.12.09
TODAY’S HIGHLIGHTS
National
50 years of development in five years post-tsunami: officials
Dec 26, 2009, The Hindu
P.V. Srividya
Over 2,227 houses will be constructed in Nagapattinam
Houses constructed by an NGO for the tsunami-affected in
Nagapattinam.
NAGAPATTINAM: The district has seen the equivalent of 50 years of development over
five years, say district officials here. Five years after the tsunami claimed over 7,000
lives, there is a certain administrative placidity to the claims and contestations of the
tsunami-affected.
According to official statistics, of the 19,736 houses that were taken up for construction
post-tsunami, over 19,000 were completed and handed over to beneficiaries. The figures
include 17,701 constructed by non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and 2,035 by
the government. While NGOs have long constructed and withdrawn from the scene,
about 667 houses are under construction by the government.
The magnitude of post-tsunami rehabilitation forced the government to engage NGOs in
the construction of permanent houses on Public-Private Partnership mode. The
government provided land, and the NGOs met the cost of construction, within the
government-stipulated cost and design parameters. However, infrastructure of roads,
drainage, sanitation and drinking water were held as the mandates of the government.
Therefore, houses came up first, followed by roads, which has caused flooding of most
tsunami colonies in low-lying areas.
Delays in land identification and transfer of ownership meant escalation costs for NGOs.
For some, funds had depleted. Construction work left to contractors proved dismal in a
few areas. Hike in demand for labour and construction materials meant inability to meet
the requirements within the marked cost
There was an absence of understanding of the coastal community’s habits and coastal
geography. Colonies that were provided with toilet facilities had leach tanks that are
unscientific for coastal areas afflicted with high water seepage.
Therefore, permanent shelter projects are the sites of acrimony in tsunami-ravaged
districts.
The remaining few NGOs, who had shifted to capacity building among the coastal
communities, are also on withdrawal mode.
Phase II rehabilitation
Emergency Tsunami Reconstruction Project (ETRP) that was in vogue in tsunamiaffected districts has been re-formulated to include a component of Vulnerability
Reduction of Coastal Communities (VRCC). The Word Bank-aided project is being
financed through a credit component from the International Development Association
(IDA).
ETRP-VRCC will cover all habitations that fall within 200 to 1,000 m of high-tide line from
the coast. It will focus on thatched houses, mud-walled shelters and houses on ‘patta’
lands situated within the specified distance from the coast and vulnerable to disasters. In
contrast to Phase I, ownership of patta lands is the primary criteria.
Over 2,227 houses would be constructed in Nagapattinam.
The project entails an estimated total cost of Rs.66.81 crore with a construction cost of
Rs.3 lakh per unit. Phase II tsunami reconstruction project is being implemented by the
Department of Rural Development with a selected NGO as a third-party facilitator.
Cold wave grips Orissa
Dec 26, 2009, The Hindu
Phulbani records 6.4 degree C
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BHUBANESWAR: Interior Orissa continued to reel under cold wave on Friday as
minimum temperature at 10 observation locations went below 10 degree Celsius.
“The temperature was appreciably below normal over interior pockets and below normal
over coastal Orissa. The lowest minimum temperature of 6.4 degree Celsius was
recorded at Phulbani, which was the season’s lowest so far,” said S. C. Sahu, director of
Meteorological Centre, Bhubaneswar.
The met office predicted that cold wave conditions were likely to prevail over some parts
of interior Orissa during next 48 hours.
As per the met centre bulletin, Phulbani was followed by western Orissa town of
Sambalpur, where temperature plummeted to 7.6 degree Celsius. In Angul and
Bhawanipatna, the minimum temperature was recorded at 8 degree Celsius.
Hilly regions such as Baripada, Keonjhar and Koraput experienced below 10 degree
Celsius.
Other western Orissa towns such as Bolangir and Jharsuguda had minimum
temperature of 9 degree Celsius and 9.7 degree Celsius respectively.
Except Puri, at almost all locations where temperature was observed, the mercury
remained below 15 degree Celsius making people feel what winter season is.
Cold wave maintained its grip over interior parts of the State with minimum temperature
remaining below two-digit mark for the third consecutive day.
“The dip in temperature is attributed to blowing of northerly wind from cold regions like
Russia and Himalayan mountains. In the event of clear sky conditions, icy wind from
north has caused drop in temperature in Orissa,” Mr. Sahu said.
The wintry phenomenon was assisted by low level of humidity prevailing over Orissa for
past few days, he said, adding that generally anti-cyclonic wind pattern over Orissa
helped maintain a moderate temperature pattern, but the wind pattern had been absent
in the atmosphere for a week now.
“Although the region generally experiences lower temperature than other pockets of the
State, still it is difficult to manage under seven degree Celsius temperature. By the
evening everybody could be found. Doors and windows are closed from daytime,” said
Alaka Mohanty, a homemaker from Phulbani.
To beat the severity of winter, people got together around the bonfire in rural region
while shops and other business establishments were closed before normal time in the
evening.
NGOs quit tsunami houses project
Dec 26, 2009, The Hindu
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VILLUPURAM: The non-governmental organisations that have been assigned the task
of constructing 415 permanent houses for the tsunami-affected people at
Bommaiyarpalayam in Vanur taluk near here have quit.
Stating this to The Hindu, District Collector R.Palanisamy observed that the NGOs had
backed out either due to financial constraints or lack of coordination. However, the
project was taken up by the district administration and 197 of these dwelling units had so
far been completed and the rest were nearing completion.
However, the NGOs had already constructed 1,442 houses for the coastal community.
Of the 313 houses to be built in the vulnerable rural areas, 108 had been completed and
the remaining 205 units were in the final stages of completion.
The Collector said that in the vulnerable coastal areas falling under the Kottakuppam
town panchayat 167 units would be constructed. Of these 46 had been completed and
121 were under construction.
The Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board would complete the construction of 62 houses in
Vasavankuppam and 263 in Chinna Mudaliar Chavadi areas by March 2010, the
Collector added.
Three killed in accident
Dec 26, 2009, The Hindu
KRISHNAGIRI: Three persons, including a three-year-old female baby, were killed and
four others sustained injuries in a car-lorry collision near Hosur on Friday.
According to police, the accident took place at Ottenur, near Shoolagiri town, on
Chennai-Bangalore National Highway The deceased were identified as S. Ravi (35), a
fruit merchant in Pudur village, near Madanoor, B. Irshad Ahmed (35), a textile merchant
at Kaderpettai, Vaniyambadi, B. Algama (3) daughter of Bilal, Kaderpettai, Vaniyambadi.
The injured were K. Selvam of Nalakottai village, Develapuram, B. Shamsina Sultan,
Khadepettai, B. Noor Fatima and M. Mustaq Ahmed.
The tourist car was returning to Bangalore from Chennai.
The driver of the lorry is absconding. The bodies were handed over to the relatives after
a postmortem at the Hosur taluk hospital.
Two killed in accident
Dec 26, 2009, The Hindu
KADAPA: Two persons were killed when their motorcycle rammed into a lorry on Chinna
Chowk bypass road here on Thursday night.
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Ramamurthy, 45, of Madhavaram in Siddhavatam mandal, and his brother-in-law
Yerikalaiah, 50, of Boyinapalle in Rajampet, died while going to Kadapa railway station
to board Egmore Express to go to Hyderabad to attend the last rites of a relative, when
the accident took place. The two earlier picked up one Subbarayudu of Seethapuram
midway and he suffered severe injuries and was admitted to RIMS hospital here. The
RIMS police registered a case.
Two killed in road accident
Dec 26, 2009, The Hindu
CUTTACK: At least two persons died and six others were injured, four of them seriously,
when a passenger bus hit a roadside tree and turned turtle at Sardol Square on NH-47
under Tangi police station, about 30 kms from here on Friday.
While the deceased have been identified as one Narayan Lenka (39) of local Sardol
village and Tilottama Lenka (21) of Kamakhyanagar in Dhenkanal district, the injured
have been shifted to SCB medical college and hospital here. Doctors said among the
four admitted in the hospital, the condition of one Niranjan Sahu (35) is critical and the
remaining injured are out of danger.
According to reports reaching here, the passenger bus travelling to Kamakshyanagar
from Bhubaneswar hit the tree when the bus driver took a sharp turn to avoid a collision
with a man who suddenly came on the path of the bus. “The bus however, could not
save the man but instead hit the tree and turned upside down. Tilottama who was
travelling in the bus was badly hit and died on the spot”, said the Tangi police incharge
officer Raj Kishore Swain.
International
10 killed as bus skids off motorway in Malaysia
Dec 26, 2009, news on air
Police in Malaysia say a bus has skidded off a motorway in the north of the country,
killing ten people and leaving dozens injured. A police spokesman said the bus crashed
into a metal barrier after speeding out of control
3 pilgrims killed, 7 injured in Iraq
Dec 26, 2009, news on air
In Iraq, three pilgrims were killed and seven others wounded in an attacks near Baghdad
on Friday evening. According to voice of Iraq news agency, the incident occurred when
an IED device exploded which targeted a Shiite procession in al-Rashad in Baghdad.
The pilgrims were going on foot in a procession heading for Karbala to mark Ashura.
The casualties include children. In a separate incident later at night, four people were
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killed and five wounded by mortars fired into the residential area of Obaidi, in eastern
Baghdad.
Tsunami anniversary observed across the world
Dec 26, 2009, news on air
People across Asia are marking the 5th anniversary of the Tsunami that killed almost a
quarter of a million people. In Indonesia's Aceh province which lost almost one hundred
and seventy thousand people in 2004, prayers have been offered in mosques and at
mass graves. In Thailand, mourners joined Buddhist monks in a tribute to victims of the
Tsunami. All religion prayers were held in Andaman-Nicolar Island to pay tributes to
victims of Tsunami in which more than 5,000 people of Island lost life five years ago. At
Port-Blair Lieutenant Governor Bhupender Singh and other senior officials paid floral
tributes at Tsunami MEMORIAL. A prayer meeting was also organised at Campbell-bay
the southern and of the islands which was worst affected by Tsunami. The government
also reviewed the re-habilitation measures initiated for the displaced people.
On the fifth anniversary of tsunami tragedy, Kerala Chief Minister V S Achyudananthan
has said that all development projects under tsunami rehanilitation programme of the
state will be completed in a few months. He has handed over keys fo 168 newly
constructed houses at Kollam district on Saturday. A part from prayers a special
commemorative structure has been unveiled at Allappad where 131 people have
perished in 2004 under tsunami waves.
Storm hits life, property in U.S.
Dec 26, 2009, The Hindu
— PHOTO: AP
Vehicles crawl: Blizzard conditions in Omaha, Nebraska, on Thursday.
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OKLAHOMA CITY: A fierce Christmas storm dumped snow and ice across the
midsection of the U.S., stranding travellers as highways and airports closed and leaving
many to celebrate the holiday just where they were. Some churches decided to cancel
Christmas Eve services, while others saw sharply lower attendance.
Meteorologists predicted the slow-moving storm would glaze highways in the East with
ice through Christmas night and that gusty thunderstorms would hamper the South.
An ice storm warning was issued for parts of the North Carolina mountains and West
Virginia, while a wind chill advisory cautioned of temperatures as low as minus 30
Fahrenheit (minus 34 Celsius) in Montana.
The National Weather Service warned that blizzards would hit parts of North Dakota,
South Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa and Wisconsin on Christmas Day and into the evening.
Slippery roads have been blamed for at least 18 deaths as the storm moved east across
the country from the Southwest.
Driving became so treacherous that authorities closed interstates in Oklahoma, South
Dakota and Texas to prevent further collisions.
The National Weather Service said the storm posed a threat to life and property. Officials
warned travellers to stay home, and pack emergency kits if they had to set out.
Oklahoma Governor Brad Henry declared a state of emergency.
Jonathan Cannon was spending the night at a Baptist church in Goldsby, Oklahoma
after being stuck for several hours on a highway. He had left Sherman, Texas, a little
after noon on Thursday hoping to join his wife in Edmond, Oklahoma — a trip that
usually takes about three hours.
Mr. Cannon, a reporter at the Sherman Herald Democrat, said about 200 people — plus
the dogs many travellers had with them in their cars — were in the church on Thursday
night, with more possibly on the way.
He wasn’t sure if he would be able to finish his journey on Friday.
“This is mine and my wife’s first Christmas together, so she’s not very excited,” he said.
About 100 passengers and the same number of workers were stuck at Oklahoma’s
largest airport, which closed on Thursday afternoon after several inches of snow clogged
runways.
At least 70 flights were cancelled, said Mark Kranenburg, director of Will Rogers World
Airport in Oklahoma City. — AP
Compiled by
Ritu Raj
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