Editorial: No Cut & Paste Preparedness Plans, Please

A policy is finally in the making to make earthquake resistant buildings a reality for the State. Sikkim always knew that its narrow valleys sit on a seismically active zone, but it was when a Big One rattled through the State last September that people and policy-makers realized just how vulnerable everything here was. The little over a year that has passed since the 18 September Earthquake has passed in taking stock, prepare repair and reconstruction proposals, sourcing funds and getting over the shock. Gangtok and the other urban centres of Sikkim no long sport any scars of the earthquake, but a visit to the interiors continues to throw up reminders of the harrowing episode from last year. Classrooms still continue in uncomfortable GCI-sheet contraptions, roads remain fragile and the worse hit areas of North Sikkim, communication remains challenged. The priorities in Gangtok, where all major decisions continue to be made, have unfortunately moved on from earnest disaster mitigation and settled back to the disconcerting disinterested tokenism which catches the State on the wrong foot every time a natural disaster strikes. The recent workshop cum orientation on climate change and disaster preparedness was not half as effective as it should have been and awareness campaigns continue to remain embarrassingly superficial. Cut and paste presentations on climate change and disaster preparedness will not make Sikkim any safer. In fact, as more time and attention is diverted to these exercises, the eroding of traditional safety mechanisms will make Sikkim even more vulnerable. The first step towards effective disaster preparedness will need to source resource persons from rural Sikkim. Ditto for any preparatory efforts to cushion climate change impact here. Funding from UNDP and GoI are welcome, but these have to be invested in customizing Sikkim’s response to the challenge of climate change and natural disasters. The traditional knowledge base, which has already been severely compromised by the impracticality of centralized planning has to be salvaged and distilled to inform Sikkim’s response to its perennial challenges posed by the land and the climate. Natural disasters are not new to Sikkim, so a good place to begin will be the compilation of a proper data base and then linking it to how local societies have managed such challenges. This knowledge should then be crunched with scientific data now at hand and a collection of region and village specific disaster plans put together to bind the State’s preparedness. The proposal to ensure earthquake-resistant construction practices needs to evaluated with this in mind. There is no arguing the fact that earthquake resistant buildings should be made the norm for Sikkim, but the rules and laws for it need to be customized for Sikkimese realities and situation. They have to be practical and enforceable and then they should be made watertight for implementation. A cut and paste job borrowed from somewhere else will defeat a welcome policy intervention.