Kashmir Floods and Disaster Management †Free Samples to Students

Question: Discuss about the Kashmir Floods and Disaster Management. Answer: Introduction: The Kashmir Flood, India that occurred in the year of 2014, after five consecutive days of rain, had a disastrous impact on the lives leaving approximately 400 people dead, approximately six lakh people stranded as well as schools and other large buildings destroyed (Shah 2015). Considered to be the worst flood in the last hundred years, the natural disaster has clearly pointed out that lack of disaster preparedness on part of the government is primarily responsible for the catastrophe. The national government agency had been blamed largely owing to its callousness in dealing with natural disasters. Not only, is the government entrusted with implementing a variety of preventive measures so as to eliminate the potential risks involved, but it is also expected to raise the public awareness about the causes of flood, and the risks involved. As far as the preparedness of the risk Management authority was concerned, a striking lack of voluntary activists aggravated the problem. The state did not have enough boats in order to rescue the victims in proper time, and hence new boats had to be ferried from other states, ultimately leading to further delay in the rescue problem and aggravation of the problem . Further, despite the presence of various volunteers, the state had a huge dearth of trained, professional volunteers, or adequate staffs who could be actively engaged in eliminating the risks involved in the disaster. The absence of skilled manpower along with the lack o f advanced technology, employed by the government had failed to mitigate the impact of the disaster on the lives of the people (Gogoi 2014). Further, a large number of people had to seek shelter in different community run relief centers, and yet the volunteers or the government agencies were unable to get a consolidated list of rescued people. Hence, it became even difficult to identify the people who were being involved in the disaster as well. As far as the government of Jammu and Kashmir is concerned, the government did have a highly inefficient and outdated disaster and calamity Management policy, as a result of which once the disaster occurred, shortage of boats and bad weather kept many people stranded. Besides, it is not sufficient for the government to formulate and implement risk preventive measures, as it is equally important to engage the common people in research and development activities for the mitigation of the impacts of the disasters. However, in case of India, IGNOU is the only state that has been offering disaster management courses, as a result of which very few people are engaging in the research and development activities for mitigating the impact of flood here. Further, it is equally important to mention here that the Union Ministry of Water Resources of India does have a flood forecast system with more than 157 centers in India and yet there is no forecast system for one of the most flood prone state s of India- Jammu and Kashmir (Kumar 2017). As far as the US jurisdiction regarding the workplace safety is concerned, the Occupational Safety and Health Acts of 1970, has mandated that it is the responsibility of the employers to offer a safe environment to the employees. The FLSA Act of the USA clearly states that the employees working in an organization must be at least 18 years of age, and not below that. Similarly, the Mine Safety and Health Act of 1977 protects and safeguards the health and well-being of all the workers, engaged in mining and mineral processing activities. However, in order to avert the risks, the government acts do not incorporate any form of technological innovation to protect the lives of the employees. The employers under the OSH Act are directed to protect the employees from serious, recognized hazards and risks. However, while serious risks imply fatal accidents that can take a toll on the life of an employee, the recognized hazards may imply the risk of an employee of getting heavily injured. Howe ver, minor injuries caused by trip and fall, that can completely or partially disable and hurt the employer or occupational stress are not being covered under the OSHA Act. The issue of cockpit intrusion is indeed an odd case, and it cannot be predicted easily by the Management authority that a deranged man might barge in the pilots room, and intervene with the operational activity of the pilot. However, since in 2011 four similar incidents had occurred, the management must become doubly cautious regarding the safety of the cockpit door. Since similar incidents have already occurred before, the aircraft organizations must foresee the risks associated with the issue of cockpit intrusion, and should accordingly introduce reinforced, bullet proof doors, in order to prevent the intruders from barging in the cockpit. However, back in 2000, it might have seemed to be unlikely to expect a deranged man barging in the cockpit without any reason, Although the argument of foresee-ability can be justified to a considerable extent, for overall safety of the passengers, rules should have been imposed to ensure that the cockpit doors remain locked during the flight. A s far as the controllability of the issue is concerned, the management authority can easily control the risks involved. The pilots could be summoned and asked about their experiences regarding cockpit intrusion and accordingly feasible solutions could be implemented. Since a single co-pilot finds it difficult to get rid of the intruder, the provision of more than two co-pilots within the cockpit can also be highly effective. Since the cockpit door is the only barrier existing between the passenger and a pilot, at least one more security door can be installed, that can act as a fortification against the determined intruders. Besides, rules should also have been imposed to ensure that the cockpit doors remain locked during the flight. However, it was very reasonable for British Airways Boeing 747, that it was unable to predict and foresee the risks involved in keeping its door unlocked. The human made disaster that took place lives of four people created major question on the viability of the risk management that would have been the primary concern of the management of the park and the negligence of which has resulted in the massacre. Accidents are unnatural aspect of life on earth. There are certain desired and perfect circumstances that are rather regarded normal if we consider the damage and the ill effect that the particular accident might cause (Koubaridis et al. 2016). In case if the cause is behind normality, there raise the question on managing the risk factors and the ultimate situation that has lead to the disaster. The incident or rather the negligence of the authority of the park has ultimately leaded to the situation that took lives of the visitors. If the legal framework and the jurisdiction is taken into consideration, it has to be said that it falls under the responsibility of the management to undertake the safety measures at the workplace. Thus, the accident that occurred at Dreamworld could have easily been avoided in case proper precaution was undertaken. In case of an amusement park, the authorities should have undertaken proper approach and shall have conducted regular checks on the rides that the disaster could have been restricted (McKeith 2016). The common law says that an organization should provide a safe system to work and should also have a well trained supervisor who shall be responsible for the overall safety and regulation of the particular place. In addition to this, the Statute law also establishes the functions and rules to draw and maintain a comprehensive measure to take necessary precaution against any kind of faulty measure. The police after investigation had presented their view point and have claimed that the parks authority is completely responsible for the disaster that took place there and killed four. The park was shut down for a number of days as investigation was going on but soon within a span of one month, the park was reopened and it started operating like the same way as before. As evident from the reports, the experts have claimed that the disaster that took place in the park is indeed due to the negligence of the workers and authorities at the park. The accident could have been prevented if they were careful enough and had the basic instinct of understanding the importance of live that the accident has taken away. The risks to employees act, also states that for any kind of engineering bodies like cranes, vessels and other equipment, should be under the regulations in the Queensland, under the registration of professional engineers (Murray 2016). Therefore, it can be clearly claimed that the authorities of the part were much responsible for the accident that took place at the place. The experience of the Family ride would have been better and everyone would have been saved if the authority had performed their duties and had taken the necessary steps at the right time. The Dream world Disaster is one of the largest man-made disasters that had shocked everyone by the tragic, catastrophic death of the four members of a family, owing to the accident that happened on the Thunder River Rapids Ride. While a theme park is meant to amuse the visitors, the malfunctioning of the rides had led to the question that to what extent these rides are safe. The four members of the family were flipped out of the raft as the family ride got plagued by technical problems, ultimately taking a tool on the lives of the four members of the same family. There is no point denying the fact that the risk assessment methods would be of great use while managing the risks involved in case of the theme parks. First of all, it is important to assess and critically analyze the risks that can be involved in the rides, considering the design and structure and layout of the park as well as the rides, and accordingly the construction safety requirements must be evaluated. At present, the Australian government has introduced the Amusement Rides and Devices Australian Standard that lays out the mandatory rules and safety laws which each amusement ride operator must abide by. While assessing the risks involved in the theme park rides, the management authority must ensure that all the laws and rules are being conformed to. Each ride should be identified, and the risk involved should be evaluated, and accordingly the solutions or the preventive measures should be implemented (Withey 2016). Each risk factor should be identified and analyzed against ea ch ride, risks should range from intense physical injury risks, to minor risks such as nausea from jerks and accelerations should be identified. Special attention has to be provided to the design of locks and restraints or else unplanned release of locks can easily lead to unplanned release of locks ultimately leading to fatal accidents. Next, a risk assessment report would be used for identifying the risks according to the gravity of the risks involved, such as minor risks might include light injury risks, while moderate risks might include serious risk that would lead to hospital admission, and major risks would include fatalities. In order to address the risk matters in an effective way, it is highly important to hire at least two or three risk experts who would identify the risks and accordingly offer preventive measures for the same (Hanrahan 2016). At the same time, it is equally important to engage each ride owner in the risk assessment programs, so that they can be doubly cautious about the potential risks involved. Further, the consumers should be offered risk handouts before they avail the rides, that have been asse ssed to have risks ranging from moderate to severe levels. Reference List: Gogoi, E. 2014.Kashmir Flood Disaster How the Next One Could Be Avoided. [online] Available at: https://blogs.wsj.com/indiarealtime/2014/09/12/kashmir-flood-disaster-how-the-next-one-could-be-avoided/ [Accessed 29 Apr. 2017]. Hanrahan, J. 2016.From a near miss 30 years ago to a similar capsizing just months before fatal accident: Horror stories from Dreamworld's Thunder River Rapids ride revealed Read more: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3878712/Dreamworld-disaster-Horror-stories-revealed-doomed-Thunder-Rapids-Ride.html#ixzz4fdU9qdru Available at: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3878712/Dreamworld-disaster-Horror-stories-revealed-doomed-Thunder-Rapids-Ride.html [Accessed 29 Apr. 2017]. Koubaridis, A., Burke, L., and Willis, C., 2016 Couple missed Dreamworld disaster when they let others go ahead of them Available at: https://www.news.com.au/national/queensland/whole-family-wiped-out-in-dreamworld-tragedy/news-story/8d482a62c29ac586cb6faf31e2218bf2 [Accessed on: 29-4-2017] Kumar, R. 2017.Flood hazard and risk assessment of 2014 floods in Kashmir Valley: a space-based multisensor approach. [online] Springer Link. Available at: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11069-016-2428-4 [Accessed 29 Apr. 2017]. McKeith, S., 2016 Dreamworld Disaster: Police Complete Analysis Of Theme Park Site Available at: https://www.huffingtonpost.com.au/2016/11/06/dreamworld-disaster-police-complete-analysis-of-theme-park-site/ [Accessed on: 29-4-2017] Murray, W., 2016 Dreamworld: four confirmed dead at Australian theme park as it happened Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/live/2016/oct/25/dreamworld-four-people-critically-injured-at-australian-theme-park-live-updates [Accessed on: 29-4-2017] Shah, A. 2015.Kashmir Floods And Disaster Management OpEd. [online] Eurasia Review. Available at: https://www.eurasiareview.com/14102015-kashmir-floods-and-disaster-management-oped/ [Accessed 29 Apr. 2017]. The Conversation. (2017).Deaths at Dreamworld theme park could lead to safety changes for amusement rides. [online] Available at: https://theconversation.com/deaths-at-dreamworld-theme-park-could-lead-to-safety-changes-for-amusement-rides-67701 [Accessed 29 Apr. 2017]. Withey, A. 2016.Dreamworld deaths: Expert believes maintenance issue, not ride's age, as reason for deadly accident. [online] ABC News. Available at: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-10-26/dreamworld-accident-expert-points-to-maintenance-issues/7967020 [Accessed 29 Apr. 2017].