As India celebrated its 52nd Republic Day on 26 January 2001, a massive earthquake measuring 7.9 on the Richter Scale struck Kutch district of western Gujarat at 8:46 am.
Over 37.8 million people were affected as the devastating earthquake with an epicenter north-east of Bhuj city, destroyed homes, schools, roads, communication systems and power lines. The earthquake was followed by several aftershocks over the next few days.
As much as the devastation, what marks the 20th anniversary of the Gujarat earthquake is the opportunity the government took in rebuilding the State on sustainable disaster-resistant foundations.
The Government of Gujarat responded rapidly with emergency relief services to mitigate loss to lives, livelihoods and property, and continued in the emergency-phase mode until mid-March 2001 to ensure services reached the last mile.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who was then the chief minister of Gujarat, started the rehabilitation phase with an aim to “build back better” with “owner-driven reconstruction” to achieve the long-term goal of sustainable disaster-resilient development.
“Gujarat has a tradition and legacy on resilience considering the risk reduction initiatives in the recovery efforts from the Gujarat earthquake in 2001. The health care facilities in the State have been rebuilt as earthquake resilient. Twenty years later, we are confident Gujarat will also apply the same risk reduction efforts in strengthening health and related systems to be resilient post COVID-19 pandemic,” said Dr Roderico H. Ofrin, WHO Country Representative to India.
Gujarat became the first state in India to enact the Gujarat State Disaster Management Act 2003 to provide legal and regulatory framework for effective disaster management and risk mitigation through implementing, monitoring and coordinating reconstruction and rehabilitation efforts. The Act clarifies the roles of principal stakeholders in disaster management.
The Act became the blueprint for India’s Disaster Management Act, 2005, at the national level which led to the creation of the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) headed by the prime minister as the chairperson, and State Disaster Management Authorities headed by respective Chief Ministers to lead the response and creation of other institutions like National Institute of Disaster Management and National Disaster Response Force.
Within days of the earthquake, temporary health centres were set up in tents and a public health lab was established in a pre-fabricated structure in Bhuj to ensure continuity of health services and disease surveillance. This was rapidly followed by GIS-based disease surveillance as an early warning mechanism to prevent outbreaks.
The State Government rebuilt District Hospital of Kutch, G K General Hospital, which had completely collapsed during the 2001 earthquake, using the Base Isolation Technique structural technique that makes buildings earthquake-resilient.
Twenty years on, remarkable progress has been made in building a swifter response and a resilient future. The WHO Safe Hospital Initiative, WHO Health Emergency and Disaster Risk Management Framework, The Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, and other supporting global frameworks, as well as the revision of National Building Codes 2019, National Earthquake Risk Mitigation Programme and global platforms like Coalition of Disaster Resilient Infrastructure, are just a few examples of the paradigm shift in the way India approaches future risk and becomes disaster ready.