Disaster Management

UNIT-5

5.1 Management rolls in mitigating Disaster in Indian Textile

Industries:

Today, advanced technology plays a vital role in the field of textile industry. Any
manufacturing unit employees five M’s that is Men, Machine, Material, Management
and of course Money. To get organizational success, managers need to focus on
synchronizing all these factors and developing synergies within and outside
organizational operation. In short, many textile companies are leveraging the
technological power to adding value to their business.

Risk management in a textile industry is attempting to identify and then manage threats
that could severely impact or bring down the organization. Generally, this involves
reviewing operations of the organization, identifying potential threats to the
organization and the likelihood of their occurrence and then taking appropriate actions
to address the most likely threats.

It has therefore become mandatory for the listed Industries to prepare a comprehensive
framework of accident risk management for assessment of risks and determine the
responses to these risks so as to minimize their adverse impact on the organization.

Goals/Targets of Safety:

Accident prevention
Accident control
Protection of human health/life
Protection of material and property
Protection of environment
All workmen as well as staff of the factory should be committed to safe work
environment and hence they should follow the basic principle of ‘safety first’.

The safety department of the factory is responsible for creating safe environment at
workplace. They are also responsible for creating and maintaining awareness on safety
aspects at factory premises. This is achieved by regular training programmes, display
of posters and notices at strategic locations, arranging documentary film shows related
to safety, on job training, daily safety round, recommendation for corrective action,
etc.
The Department should have formulated safety procedures and rules, depending upon
the nature of work carried out at respective location. These procedures allow the safety
personnel to periodically inspect equipments such as safety guards, cranes, lifting
tackles, etc.
Timely inspection should be there for the certificates of fitness of the equipment.

Management should constitute a safety committee involving workers headed by

management authorities. The members of the committee should take periodical review
and identify safety requirements at various locations/places. These requirements are
assessed and approved by the management authorities. The members should also
examine the status of safety equipment and ensure that they are in good working
conditions. If some changes/replacement is observed, they should propose suitable
corrective action. The factory should uses safety gears and equipments of standard
make (meeting national or international standards). The management should ensure
provision of adequate funds for safety.

However, the factory has well laid procedure for accidents, which is as follows.

Procedures in case of accident:

According to the procedures, when an accident occurs at any place of the factory,
respective shift incharge immediately fills the accident report form. In the next step,
this form is sent to respective Head of the Department who signs the form and submits
it to Managing Director (MD), who communicate it to the Government Authority/ies.
MD also initiates the process of investigation under the supervision of safety officer.
Root cause of accident is determined and suitable preventive/corrective action is
drawn. MD approves the findings of the investigations and corrective/preventive action
plan is submitted to respective Head for implementation.
 Accident Shift in-charge

Head of the Department

Managing Director

Safety Officer

Government Authorities

Figure 5.1: Schematic of procedure in case of accident

RISK ASSESSMENT AND RISK MANAGEMENT:

Generally, risk associated with industrial processes can be defined as a measure of

probability of harmful event such as death, injury, loss, etc. arising from exposure to
chemical or physical agent may occur under the specific conditions of manufacture,
use or disposal. Risk is a mathematical product of hazard and exposure. This
relationship can, be expressed in the following simple formula.

Risk = Hazard x Exposure x Vulnerability

Multiplying any number by zero results in a product of zero, which means that an
extremely hazardous substance can be present with little risk of adverse effect, if
handled safely under proper conditions then the ‘exposure’ component of the risk
equation is driven towards zero. Similarly, the hazard component can be reduced to
zero even if there is a high probability of exposure, by changing the process design,
substituting less hazardous commodity, using a lesser amount of a chemical, etc. and
the recognition of vulnerability as a key element in the risk equation has also been
accompanied by a growing interest in linking the positive capacities of people to cope,
withstand and recover from the impact of hazards.
It conveys a sense of the potential for managerial and operational capabilities to reduce
the extent of hazards and the degree of vulnerability, which derives the total equation
of risk towards zero.
Risk assessment is concerned with determining those factors which are especially
dangerous and determining the likelihood of unacceptable toxic exposure. Risk should
be assessed against defined limits of exposure, established on the basis of tests under
appropriate conditions.

Risk Management – a decision-making process to select the optimal steps for reducing
a risk to an acceptable level. In the industrial context, it consists of 3 steps:
a. Risk assessment (evaluation),
b. Emission and Exposure control, and
c. Risk monitoring.

5.1.1 HAZARD IDENTIFICATION

5.1.1.1 Broad categories of hazard

To help with the process of identifying hazards it is useful to categorize hazards in

different ways like:
a. Mechanical
b. Electrical
c. Thermal
d. Noise and vibration
e. Material/Substances
f. Fire and explosion

a. Mechanical Hazard
It mainly involves properties of machine parts or work pieces, such as:
a. Faulty design (Shape): It may cause injury to workman
b. Relative location: Confined location during repairs & maintenance
c. Mass and stability: May cause physical injury
d. Inadequacy of mechanical strength
e. Accumulation of energy inside the equipment: steam/ air /water pressure cause
injury to workman
f. During commissioning, operation, maintenance and decommissioning of Co-
generation plant following hazards are anticipated:
Crushing hazard, shearing hazard, cutting or severing hazard, entangling hazard,
friction or abrasion hazard and high pressure fluid injection or ejection hazard.

b. Electrical Hazard
Probable incidences for electrical hazards, could be
a. Contact of persons with live parts (direct contact),
b. Contact of persons with parts which have become live under faulty conditions
(indirect contact)
c. Approach to live parts under high voltage
d. Electrostatic phenomena
e. Thermal radiation or other phenomena such as the projection of molten particles and
chemical
f. Effect of short circuits, overloads, etc identified during construction, production and
maintenance.

c. Thermal Hazard
Probable causes of thermal hazards are -
a. Burns, scalds and other injuries by a possible contact of persons with objects or
materials with an extremely high or low temperature, by flames or explosions and also
by radiation of heat sources
b. Damage to health by hot or cold working environment
c. Thermodynamic hazard such as overpressure, under pressure, over-temperature,
under temperature need to be avoided by providing system management

d. Hazard generated by noise & vibration

In the proposed project, probable source of noise are – boilers, steam turbine
generators and transportation of bagasse on conveyer belts, motors, loading of bagasse,
etc. Usually prolong exposure to high noise level, results into
1. Hearing loss (deafness), other physiological disorder (e.g., loss of balance, loss of
awareness)
2. Interference with speech communication, acoustic signals, etc.
In the proposed project the hazard due to vibrations could be due to -
a. Use of hand-held machines resulting in a variety of neurological and vascular
disorders
b. Whole body vibration, particularly when combined with poor postures

e. Hazards generated by materials/substances

1. Hazards from contact with or inhalation of harmful fluids such as: anti rusting
chemicals, cleaning agents/acids/organic solvents gases, superheated steam through
leaks and bagasse dusts
2. Fire or explosion hazard—dry bagasse
3. Biological or microbiological (viral or bacterial) hazards: -Workplace exposure to
dusts from the processing of bagasse can cause the chronic lung condition pulmonary
fibrosis.

During work activities following hazards could exist -

i. Slips/falls on the floor level
ii. Falls of persons from heights
iii. Falls of tools, materials, etc. from heights
iv. Inadequate headroom
v. Hazards associated with manual lifting/handling of tools, material, etc
vi. Hazards from plant and machinery associated with assembly, commissioning,
operation, maintenance, modification, repair and dismantling
vii. Vehicle hazards, covering both on-site transport and off-site travel by road
viii. Fire and explosion
ix. Violence to staff
x. Substances that may be inhaled
xi. Substances or agents that may damage the eye
xii. Substances that may cause harm by coming into contact with, or being absorbed
through the skin
xiii. Substances that may cause harm by being ingested (for example entering the body
via mouth)
xiv. Harmful energies (for example, electricity, radiation, noise, vibration, etc.)
xv. Non-compliance of regulation
xvi. Inadequate thermal environment, for example too hot
xvii. Lighting levels
xviii. Inadequate guard rails or hand rails on stairs
xix. Subcontractors' activities.
5.1.2 PROBABLE RISK FACTORS (Associate with the Textile Industry)
Following scenarios fall under maximum credible accident scenario:
• Fire in fuel /Chemical storage yard
• Fire due to short circuits
• Injury to body and body parts (mechanical/ Textile processing machinery unit)

Fire in fuel storage yard:

This is the most common accident known to occur in any plant, while storing and
handling fuel/Chemicals. Usually, such incident takes sufficient time to get
widespread. Enough response time is available for plant personnel to get away to safer
distance. An elaborate fire hydrant network and firefighting system comprising of
trained crew and facilities will mitigate the risk of such incidents. In addition, as per
requirement fire alarm system and smoke detectors have been installed (in the existing
unit).

Mechanical injury to body parts

In a plant, there are several places where workers are likely to be involved with
accidents resulting in injury to body parts. The places are workshop, during mechanical
repair work in different units, during construction work, road accidents due to
vehicular movement, etc.
Workers exposed to mechanical accident-prone areas are using personal protective
equipment. The non-respiratory PPE includes tight rubber goggles, safety helmets,
welders hand shields and welding helmets, plastic face shields, ear plugs, ear muffs,
rubber aprons, rubber gloves, shoes with non-skid soles, gum boots, safety shoe with
toe protection. All safety and health codes prescribed by the BIS will be implemented.

5.1.3 QUALITATIVE RISK ASSESSMENT:

Table 5.1: Probability of occurrence of hazard
Probability Causes/ Incident
Number
1 Very unlikely once in 10 yrs
2 Remote once in 5 years
3 Occasional once in a year
4 Probable once in a month
5 Frequent / daily or more often
 Table 5.2: Severity - Impact Intensity

1 Minor Failure results in minor system damage but does not cause injury to
personnel,
allow any kind of exposure to operational or service personnel or allow any
release of chemicals into the environment
2 Major Failure results in a low level of exposure to personnel, or activates facility
alarm
system
3 Critical Failure results in minor injury to personnel exposure to harmful
chemicals or
radiation, or fire or a release of chemical to the environment
4 Catastrophic Failure results in major injury or death of personnel

Calculation of Risk assessment and mitigation measures:

Risk = Probability x severity

If, there is a probability number of any particular cause/incident is 1 and its severity is
minor then, Risk involved in the hazard is 1x1 = 1

Whereas, if, there is a probability number of any particular cause/incident is 5 and its
severity is catastrophic then,
Risk involved in the hazard is 5x4 = 20
Thus, the Risk of those hazards scoring 20 are defined and considered as ‘Non-
acceptable Risk’
 Mitigation measures or operational control procedures required for
such hazards identified is given below in Table 5.3

Table 5.3: Mitigation measures for identified hazards

S.NO HAZARDS CAUSE EFFECT REMEDIAL MEASURES

PHYSICAL HAZARDS
1 Noise  Simple gear,  Sound levels cause  Isolation of the machine and Silencer
 Continuous trauma to the cochlear mustbe kept.
geartrain, structure inthe inner ear.  Inverted drive control noise in ring
 Chain drive,  It will cause high blood frame.
 Bevel drive, pressure.  Proper maintenance lubricating
 Worm and worm  It affects sleep and work controlnoise.
wheel performance
 Variable drive.
2 Dust  Cotton  Causes  Dust collector,
 Fiber particles respiratory problems and  Proper Housekeeping
causes Byssinosis  Necessary PPE should were by worker.
3 Lighting  High beam and  Eye strain  Proper lightning condition
Low beam of light  Glaring and  Provide safety goggles for reduce
 Irritation of eye eyestrain for improper lighting
condition.
FIRE HAZARDS
1 Welding  Welding sparks  Spark ignition is very  Restrict unauthorized person to do
operation dangerous. welding
2 Electrical short  Improper  If no trip occurs its get  ACB (Air circuit breaker), MCB
circuit happens earthingand sparks and get fire. (motorcircuit breaker).
 Insulations

3 Smoking  Easily ignitable  Easily gets fire  Safety signs & workers must aware of
materials notusing any ignition product
4 Flammable  Dyes  It may be easily ignited  To store the dye stuffs in safe place.
dyestuffs  To maintain properly.
ELECTRICAL HAZARDS
1 Improper  Poor  Trip occurs Electric  Avoid improper earthing and
Earthing and housekeeping shock looseconnection,
Moisture  Improper circuit  All circuits to be enclosed in a proper
connections circuit.
 Proper housekeeping.
2 Input power  Using low quality  Cable melting & switch  Input wire must be more power
cable exceeds cables. becomes heat thanoutput wire.
More output
3 Looping in the  Improper looping  Electronics PCB  Avoid looping
running line. system  ECB board Check the connection
4 Electrical  Imprope  Easily get fire with the  Needs preventive maintenance
Maintenance r friction of motors  Grease the motor frequently.
electrical
Maintenance.
CHEMICAL HAZARDS
1 Bleaching  Chlorine powders  Exposed to dangerous  Suitable PPE, including eye-protective
levels of chlorine, a skin equipment
and eye irritant  Use personal protective equipment
 Dangerous pulmonary
Tissue irritant causing
delayed lung oedema.
2 Corrosion  Alkalis and acids  Expose the workers to  Protective clothing should be cleaned
 the risk of burns and atregular intervals
scalds

ERGONOMICS HAZARDS
1 Uncomfortable  Improper height  Pain in hand and legs.  Importance to ergonomics
work station  Practicing shifts
and height.  Provide height adjustable chairs so
individual operator can work at their
preferred work height
2 Repetitive  Repeating of work  Wrist, Neck, Shoulder,  Proper working procedure
strain injuries Neck, Knee, Angle.  Raised platforms to help operators
reachbadly located controls
 Proper orientation of machine to
preventsquatting posture
PSYCHOLOGICAL HAZARDS
1 Not interested  Physiological  Trauma  Give counseling.
to work problem  Anxiety disorder
 Bipolar and
Relateddisorder
 Neurodevelopmen
tdisorder.
2 Production  Stress to  High blood pressure  Set achievable Target.
target theworker  Nervousness and tensions
 Uncooperative attitude
 Digestive problem

The following suggestions can be made to improve the safety and health
conditions in textile units:

 The seats of the workers and the tables should be well aligned in
height so that there is no musculoskeletal strain.

 There should be proper lighting at the place of work so that eye strain
can be avoided.
  Machinery should be well maintained in order to reduce the
level of noise. If necessary, certain parts of machines can be
replaced.
 In case the noise level cannot be controlled, workers should be
provided with earplugs so that exposure to noise can be reduced.

 Workers can be rotated within jobs so that they are not faced with
continuous noise exposure for a long period of time.

 There should be proper ventilation at the place of work.

 In order to reduce the exposure to dust, workers should be provided
with masks.
 Trained medical personnel and first aid facilities as well as safety
equipments such as fire extinguishers and fire alarms should be
available at the place of work.

 In units where there is heavy exposure to dangerous chemicals,

workers should be provided with safety gloves.

 Proper dust control equipment should be set up and maintained to

reduce the workers exposure to cotton dust.

5.2 DISASTER MANAGER: ROLE AND FUNCTIONS:

The disaster management activity is extending beyond post-disaster relief,
assistance and rehabilitation encompassing pre-disaster planning, preparedness,
response, information management, interpersonal relations, conflict management
etc. The question that arises is why we have to apply management principles to
disaster situations. Disasters disrupt the economies and have devastating
consequences, create chaos that throw up certain serious issues to the disaster
manager which, to a certain extent can be made amenable to solution through
application of managerial concepts and principles. The disaster manager is often
confronted with certain complex problems some of which are:
 Lack of assessment or clarity regarding the multiple consequences arising
out of disasters
 Unavailable, unreliable, competing, and multiple types of information
  limited and at times inaccessible resources (human, material and financial)
 Ambiguity regarding the nature of disaster, its repercussions, the extent of
damage, ways of prioritizing resources etc., and
 Indeterminate behavior amongst the individuals working in the organization
and other stakeholders and community.
Disasters are chaotic situations that create confusion, instability and also call for
prompt action on the part of the managers. Since the events move rapidly and are
traumatic, they necessitate quick decisions. Often the managers might not even get
a second chance to think and decide. Hence application or use of management
principles facilitates the handling of situation and bringing the events under
control. Managerial principles are said to:
 Provide a framework for decision-making which is essential for disaster
situations
 Facilitate prompt and quick decision-making
 Help group activity that is needed for guiding proper utilization of resources
for accomplishing goals; and
 Formulate and implement a balanced disaster or crisis management action
plan.

A disaster manager’s role, in the light of this, centers on the following

considerations:
 Identify the key issues involved in managing disasters
 Integrate disaster prevention and preparedness into development
 Protect the vulnerable
 Ensure the involvement of community
 Provide disaster assistance as far as possible in an equitable and consistent
manner
 Establish transparency, commitment and involvement in implementing any
ongoing disaster management programme
 Address or take cognizance of the local ecology
 Draw up an emergency or response or disaster management plan which is
transparent flexible, efficient, effective, affordable and sustainable; and
  Make disaster management activity need oriented, multi-disciplinary and
integrated.
These responsibilities envisage that a disaster manager be innovative, risk taking,
catalytic, entrepreneurial and proactive.
The performance of multifaceted activities calls for a broad base of knowledge in
several areas and blending this into well-coordinated programmes. A disaster
manager in fulfilling the assigned tasks addresses the following aspects on a
continuous basis. These include:
 Disaster and its linkage with development
 Disaster Preparedness
 Disaster Mitigation
 Risk and Vulnerability assessment
 Logistics
 Rehabilitation and reconstruction
Let us now discuss the broad set of activities the disaster manager is to discharge in
routine situations as well as crises.
Management of Risks:
A disaster manager is to be fully equipped and prepared to manage the risks. This
includes identifying the possible threats or hazards, assessing the probability of
their occurrence, their impact on community and laying down measures to reduce
the risks or threats. These can be managed by initiating appropriate development
activities in addition to the immediate measures to tackle the crisis.
Management of Losses:
In a disaster, as you know, the losses are manifold, encompassing human,
livestock, infrastructure, property, etc. Efforts towards managing losses are
addressed in pre, during and post-disaster phase encompass.
Pre-disaster activities encompass:
 Providing appropriate information to the communities about the impending
disaster
 Strengthening wherever possible the resistance of buildings and physical
structures
 Arranging for the safety of the people residing in threatened areas; and
  Making use of social networking mechanisms to mobilize people in the
vulnerable areas
The post-disaster loss management activities aim at improving the response and
widening the support to the community. This includes devising prompt relief and
recovery activities and a host of rehabilitation and reconstruction efforts.
Control of Events:
This is a very important activity as the situation that is likely to arise or the crisis
that has occurred need to be controlled and managed through several measures
such as:
 Determining or gauging the cause and effect relationship generated by each
event
 Reducing the scope of disaster
 Collecting information and assessing it to prioritize actions and guide
response
 Developing an appropriate mix or a combination of responses for meeting
disaster needs
 Taking appropriate action on identifying the problem and selecting response
strategy
 Providing a lead to the various activities as well as the personnel.
Appropriate and effective leadership enables good public response and
encourages people to take action for themselves in meeting their needs
 Fostering discipline in all activities and disaster management systems to
enable orderly and precise functioning; and
 Providing assistance in an equitable and fair manner to enable disaster
victims receive fair treatment and adequate access to the resources.
Resource Management:
Resources are of various types. They include financial, organizational, personnel,
logistics, information, and so on. These need to be managed with the help of
managerial techniques to facilitate the disaster manager’s functioning. Also,
innovative practices are being introduced in present times in the management of
resources. For example, the disaster manager can mobilize the communities to
contribute either in the form of cash, kind or labour in mitigation activities in
reducing their risks to disasters. Presently, micro-finance is being used to enable
the community to act and invest in preventive measures such as check dams,
drainage systems etc. These are some of the broad functions the disaster manager
is expected to perform. With this overview, let us now analyze the role of the
disaster manager. This can be done under the following three broad categories.
 Managing Organizations
 Managing Operations
 Managing People
Managing Organizations:
The process of managing organizations involves discharge of POSDCoRB
(Planning, Organizing, Staffing, Directing, Coordinating, Reporting and
Budgeting) activities, resource management, monitoring and evaluation.

Planning: It implies determining in advance the objectives and activities to be

carried out, the methods to be adopted to achieve the purposes. Planning with
reference to managing disasters includes strategic planning, contingency planning
and forward planning.

Strategic Planning: This involves preparing for disaster threats from the long-term
perspective that is those, which are not to occur immediately, but could take place
in future.

Contingency Planning: It implies planning for a crisis. According to the Disaster

Management Training Programme, it is a forward planning process in a state of
uncertainty in which scenarios and objectives are agreed, managerial and technical
actions defined and response systems put in order to prevent, or better respond to
an emergency or critical situation.

Forward Planning: This is resorted to in situations where disaster is going to occur

and the manager takes adequate precautions.

Organizing: It involves establishing the formal structure of authority through

which the work is subdivided, arranged and coordinated. Organizing implies laying
down the activities to be performed to implement the strategies that have been
chosen as the part of the planning process, division of activities and their
assignment to individuals and groups, the type of authority and responsibility to be
assigned, control and coordination mechanisms. Disaster management activities
are to be supported by an organization in which these are to be carried out.
Organizing involves establishment of clear-cut functions and responsibilities for
prevention, preparedness, response and recovery. The roles and responsibilities of
all concerned are to be specified. This involves inter-agency and inter-departmental
arrangements to support planning, control and coordination.

Staffing: This encompasses hiring personnel at various levels, training, team

building, motivation and morale etc.

Directing: This is concerned with making of decisions and providing necessary

directions to guide the organizational efforts. It involves command and control
activities wherein prior to the occurrence of any disaster, the responsibility for
overall control of the situation and of each organizational element needs to be
clearly laid down.

Coordinating: This relates to bringing or putting together the efforts of various

units and personnel to work towards the laid down goals. For example in a disaster
management organization, there can be top management, middle and field
management along with other specialists handling areas such as finance, logistics
etc. Disaster operations require appropriate pooling and assembling of resources.
As the organization becomes complex and diversified, a chain of command and
coordination running across several levels is established.

Reporting: Each level in the organization reports to the next higher level. For
example in government, the top management reports to the political executive and
thereby to the Parliament.

Budgeting: This involves fiscal planning, budgeting and accounting.

These are the basic managerial functions to be discharged by any organization.

Each specialized functioning area has its own processes and techniques. A
combination of general principles with specialized tools makes disaster
management effective.

Managing People: Managing people involves organization of tasks and

assignment of functions and responsibilities to people, establishing lines of
communication, performance evaluation, motivation and morale of the people,
leadership and conflict resolution.

Managing Operations: This includes managing the various operations pertaining

to several phases of disasters. It deals with the management of logistics/materials,
emergency operations, information, along with formulating an action plan for
handling crisis, operationalizing the plan etc. It is also concerned with creation of
an appropriate disaster information system. Let us now briefly examine a few of
these facets.

Logistics Management: Management of logistics is critical in any disaster

situation. It reflects the disaster manager’s ability to identify the resources required
at the disaster site which could be equipment, commodities etc. Logistics is
concerned with getting the desired materials and services and it provides a
framework for management of materials, services and information. Logistics is
concerned with operations and coordination of activities involved in movement of
materials and storage. During disasters, there is a huge demand for procurement
and distribution of relief commodities such as food, clothes and medicines. The
holistic approach towards logistics management aims at integrating the
procurement, preparation and physical distribution into a simple logistical process.

Inventory control is very important in logistics management and the disaster

manager needs to install a proper inventory control system. It is the system through
which any material of right quantity and quality is procured and made available at
the right time and right place. The disaster manager needs to determine the right
quantity and type to be kept as stock, which are specially required in pre-disaster
and disaster situations.

There are certain types of materials which are required in large quantities during
disasters such as food grains, medicines etc. Use of inventory control techniques
such as ABC (Always Better Control) and VED (Vital, Essential and Desirable)
analysis can facilitate the task of inventory control. For example, items such as
chlorine tablets, band-aid and cotton are required in large quantities during
disasters. Similarly there are vital items such as milk powder, medicines and water.
ABC analysis helps in determining high consumption, medium consumption and
low consumption value items.
A disaster manager needs to catalogue, categorize and record the logistic
requirements for pre, during and post-disaster situations. This can include making
an inventory of:

 Commodities likely to be needed

 Sources of supply (government, NGOs, international agencies, etc)
 Storage facilities (warehouses, temporary storage facilities, etc)
 Sources of transport (road, railways, air, etc.)

A disaster manager needs to undertake a general assessment of logistics

requirements capability. For example, if a flood is going to occur, an assessment is
to be made of the:

 Areas likely to be accessible or inaccessible for providing relief

 Time period for which the situation is likely to continue
 Commodities required to be given to the people residing in the cyclone or
temporary shelters due to evacuation
 Measures for preserving the commodities including the location of
warehouse buildings and the condition of the building so that food grains are
protected from insects, rodents, birds, etc.

The following aspects need to form part of a logistics management plan formulated
by the disaster manager:

 Logistical requirements such as fuel, oil, tents, materials for cleaning and
sanitation and other supplies such as food, water, etc.
 Procurement of supplies
 Food security
 Inventory of intended beneficiaries
 Warehouse facilities
 Modes of transport
 Methods of distribution including dry ration and wet ration

5.2.1 Information Management: Information is a key resource in managing

disasters. Effective management of information is a prerequisite for dealing with
any emergency. Any planning and control activity requires information about the
existence of various resources, operations involved, stakeholders etc. The
operationalizing of an organization needs routine type of information for day to
day activities.

Disaster management requires information on various aspects such as the socio-

economic profile of community, topography of the area, weather, existing
infrastructure etc., as it is helpful in assessing the vulnerability to hazards.
Presently, such data are being generated by multiple actors which include
government, private sector, NGOs, CBOs, UN organizations etc. Since the data is
fragmented and stored at several locations and formats, this calls for putting
together the scattered data to support disaster management activities.

There is hence, a need for an effective disaster management information system

with networking between those who provide the data, the government and the
community. Disaster manager needs to examine the possibilities of creating a
synergy of technologies and interaction between different agencies. Networking
and multi-agency interface lead to institutionalization of disaster management. The
technique of Management Information System (MIS) adequately equipped with the
necessary infrastructure and expertise to constantly monitor the risk profile of
possible disasters will be useful.

5.2.2 Roll of Technology in Disaster Management:

1.Robotics in Disaster Management
2.Rescue Robots
3.Ground robots
4. Aerial robots
5.Under water robots
6. Information and Communication System Engineering Technology ( ICT )
7.Geo-Informatics Technology ( GIT )
8.Geographical Information Systems (GIS)
9. Remote Sensing System (RSS) or Earth Observation (EO)
10.Global Positioning System ( GPS )
11.Internet or web technology
12.Management Information System (MIS)
13.Smart phones and Short Message Service (SMS)