The Gujarat Earthquake Safety Initiative

Progress Report

 Reporting Period:  February 1 to June 1, 2002
 

Overview of Project:
 

Vision – Ahmedabad, Surat and Vadodara learn from the earthquake of 2001 and take steps to make sure their cities are resistant to such disasters in the future.

Goal    – To improve earthquake disaster management in Ahmedabad, Surat and Vadodara by

·         Assessing the current state of earthquake risk and preparedness in the three cities, for all residents and for school children in particular,

·         Identifying the most realistic activities to reduce loss of life in future earthquakes, and

·         Connecting motivated individuals with resources to help them conduct risk management activities in each city.

 Project Team:

Implementers

·         GeoHazards International (GHI)

·         Society for Sustainable Environment Development (SEEDS)

·         United Nations Centre for Regional Development (UNCRD)

Supporters

·         Volunteers for India Development and Empowerment (VIDE)

·         NGOs Kobe

·         Munich Reinsurance

Accomplishments During This Reporting Period:

-         Project launched.  In early February, Amy Young of GHI and Shivangi Chawda of SEEDS visited key people in Ahmedabad, Surat and Vadodara to get key city leaders involved in and committed to this work.  They met with the Joint CEO of the Gujarat State Disaster Management Authority, the chairman of the Ahmedabad Urban Development Authority, the Municipal Commissioners of Surat and Vadodara, the District Collector of Surat, and the Fire Officer of the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation.       

-         Implementation team trained.  UNCRD hosted a training session for this project at the end of February.  Laura Samant of GHI led the training session, and Anshu Sharma and Manu Gupta of SEEDS participated.  Excellent progress was made in planning upcoming activities and developing materials for the project. 

-         Public awareness materials prepared.  The project team has prepared a series of public awareness flyers aimed at a variety of different audiences.  Flyers have been prepared on the following topics: landslides, building safety, school safety, search and rescue, fire fighting, and emergency medical response.  The flyers are in the final editing stages and will be printed soon.     

-         All project funding secured.  NGOs Kobe committed to funding this project, so now all project funding requirements have been covered.

Difficulties During This Period:

The project was delayed by three months.  Very few project activities occurred during March, April and May because of the riots and communal violence which shook the three project cities as well as the rest of Gujarat.  The situation now seems to be much more calm, although occasionally episodes of violence are still occurring.  Project activities have been ramping up as of the first of June and will be intensified during the summer months.  

Upcoming Activities:

-         Information will be collected on seismology, local geology, building design, building construction, schools, demographics, city development trends, fire fighting, medical care, and emergency response.  Public awareness materials will be distributed to all of the groups we meet with while collecting information.  The process of collecting information will also be used to understand the capabilities and interests of groups and individuals to work on issues of seismic safety in the long-term.

Selected Groups Participating in Data Collection Process:

·         Municipal Corporations of Ahmedabad, Surat and Vadodara, including Municipal Commissioners, City Engineers, Town Planning Officers, Control Room staff, Fire Officers

·         Prominent local architects

·         Urban Development Authorities of Ahmedabad, Surat and Vadodara, including Chairmen, Planning Officers, and Control Room staff

·         Civil Engineering Department of L. D. Engineering College

·         Centre for Environmental Planning & Technology (CEPT) in Ahmedabad

·         Deputy Director of Education (Primary)

·         Gujarat State Disaster Management Agency

·         State Relief Commissioner

·         Major government hospitals in each city

-         Analyze information.  We will take the information we gather and process it to produce a complete picture of risk and effective risk management activities for each city.  The output of this process will be simple maps, charts and a short list of recommendations for each city. 

-         GHI travel to Gujarat.  Laura Samant from GHI will travel to Ahmedabad, Surat and Vadodara at the end of the July to join SEEDS staff currently working there.  Tentative trip dates are July 22 to August 1.  The purposes of this trip are to complete the information collection process, finalize the analysis of information and organize and conduct the Community Forums (described below).

-         Conduct Community Forums.  Three Community Forums are scheduled, one in each city, at the end of July.  The purpose of these forums is to present our findings on the current risk and preparedness of each city to a wide audience, and discuss reasonable activities to manage and reduce risk.  We hope to identify individuals or organizations who can undertake these activities in the future.  It is possible that one or more of these forums will be postponed because of the delay in project activities this Spring.

-         Support motivated individuals.  We will identify individuals and organizations who are motivated and capable of taking steps to reduce their cities’ risks long-term.  We will help empower them to launch specific activities to reduce risk.