Inter-Ministerial and Inter-Agency Coordination in Post-Earthquake Reconstruction Cooperation Among Government Departments and Line Agencies N. Vinod Chandra Menon Member National Disaster Management Authority Government of India

Lessons from the Bhuj earthquake, Gujarat On 26 January 2001, an earthquake of 6.9 Richter Scale (7.7 MW USGS) struck Gujarat. 13,800 people lost their lives; 167,000 people injured; and more than 1.2 million houses destroyed or damaged. Destroyed schools, hospitals, roads and bridges, power supply and water supply installations, and telecommunication infrastructure villages in 21 districts (out of 18,000 villages in 25 districts) and 28 million people affected.

Post-Disaster Housing Reconstruction Out of 1,139,193 houses destroyed, 1,105,801 houses restored: 908,710 houses repaired and 197,091 houses reconstructed.  Construction of 48,300 houses in Kobe, Japan took 6 years.  72,000 houses in Mexico took five years.  43,000 houses in Turkey took four years.  80,000 houses in Colombia took three years.  38,935 houses in Taiwan took more than four years. In Gujarat, 143,000 houses were constructed and 892,000 houses repaired in two years.

Post-Earthquake Housing Reconstruction in Gujarat, India In Gujarat, 143,000 houses were constructed and 892,000 houses repaired in two years. This was achieved through public awareness campaigns, capacity building of engineers, architects and masons and involvement of local communities in the reconstruction efforts through owner-driven reconstruction. Public awareness campaigns used more than one million pamphlets on earthquake-resistant construction techniques, bus-back advertisements, hoardings, wall paintings, audio and video cassettes, training materials, Manuals and Guidelines, etc.

Coordination & Monitoring Need to carry out a comprehensive damage assessment of critical sectors (housing, dams, roads and bridges, power, water supply, telecom, public buildings (health, education), livelihoods, social security (orphans, widows, elderly, disabled) Need to create a Data Base on earthquake impact (damages), reconstruction plans and a Management Information System (MIS) based on this Data Base. Need for setting up a State Project Management Unit (SPMU) at the Emergency Management Office of the State Council and Provincial Project Monitoring Units (PPMUs) at Provincial levels for close coordination and monitoring of the post-earthquake reconstruction by liaising with Ministries, provincial Governments and line Departments

Inter-Ministerial Coordination State Council Emergency Management Office of the State Council State Commission of Disaster Reduction (34 Ministries, administrations and institute) Ministry of Civil Affairs Office of the State Commission of Disaster Reduction of China National Disaster Reduction Center of China Ministry of Land and Resources Ministry of Housing Ministry of Water Resources China Earthquake Administration Ministry of Agriculture National Development and Reform Commission Ministry of Finance Ministry of Science and Technology Ministry of National DefenceMinistry of Transport State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council Ministry of Education Ministry of Railways Power Water Telecom Insurance Radio, Film and TV

Priority Concerns While reconstructing destroyed houses and repairing damaged buildings, it is necessary to ensure that “seismic risk” is not “reconstructed”. As several million houses have to be constructed and repaired, it is necessary to create awareness on earthquake-resistant construction among affected communities and involve them in the reconstruction process. It would be useful to consider setting up People’s Committees at the County Level to monitor the Reconstruction efforts, along with local government officials, representatives of Chinese Red Cross, etc.

Priority Concerns Given the vast scale of the reconstruction need, the scope of encouraging owner-driven reconstruction may be explored. At provincial level and at county level, wherever feasible, “Construction Centres” may be set up to provide technical guidance to the local people and construction personnel on earthquake-resistant construction techniques.

Priority Concerns Capacity building of construction personnel on earthquake-resistant construction techniques may be launched as a cascade programme after initiating Training of Trainers programmes. Public awareness on seismic risk and vulnerability and on earthquake-resistant construction techniques may be launched using television, radio, video on wheels (mobile vans), publicity campaigns involving provincial and local governments and local communities.

Basic Philosophy Integrated Disaster Risk Management of China is based on “Combining the bars (scientific and technical departments) and the blocks (local governments), and mainly depend on the blocks”. “Vertical to the end with no blank” for optimising resource use efficiency and “Horizontal to the Margin and No Dead Angle” for effective coordination among multiple stakeholders. These provide the logic for a community based, owner-driven reconstruction strategy with close monitoring by government officials.

Elements of Coordination Comprehensive Multi-Sectoral Reconstruction Plan based on damage assessment of critical sectors Data Base and Management Information System (MIS) for monitoring State Project Monitoring Unit at state level, Provincial Project Monitoring Units at provincial level and People’s Committees at county level Active Involvement of communities: owner-driven reconstruction Public Awareness campaigns and Capacity Building initiatives Development of a techno-legal regime, strict enforcement and compliance of earthquake-resistant construction codes