Union Home Minister inaugurated the International Workshop on Disaster Resilient Infrastructure

Newdelhi:16/1/18;The Union Home Minister Shri Rajnath Singh inaugurated the International Workshop on Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (IWDRI) here today. The two-day workshop is being organised by the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) in collaboration with United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR).

Underlining the importance of Disaster Resilient Infrastructure, Shri Rajnath Singh said that it creates opportunities for economic growth and is at the core of sustainable development. “The way we build our infrastructure today will either build risk or resilience for the future generations. We need to bring to bear tremendous foresight and rigour to ensure that all our new infrastructure is built to withstand the hazards of the present as well as the future.”

The Union Home Minister said, “As the infrastructure systems are globally interconnected, disruptions in one part of the world can cause havoc in another part of the world. It is, therefore, important that all stakeholders come together to address the challenges and devise solutions to create resilient infrastructure.”

Reiterating India’s commitment towards building resilience and strengthening global cooperation, Shri Rajnath Singh talked about the Prime Minister’s 10-point agenda, outlined during the Asian Ministerial Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction (AMCDRR) held in New Delhi in November 2016. “At that conference, our Prime Minister outlined a ten-point agenda to give a sense of urgency to the implementation of Sendai Framework for DRR. His 1^st point emphasized the need for investing in infrastructure in a manner so that it can withstand hazards not only now but also in the future,” he said.

The Union Home Minister said robust infrastructure will be at the core of sustainable development in the coming decades; this is also recognized in the way the (United Nations’) Sustainable Development Goals have been framed. “The infrastructure that we will build in the next twenty years will be more than what we built over the last two thousand years. At the global level, by 2040, to adequately meet the infrastructure needs of humanity, we will need nearly $100 trillion. By 2030, Asia alone will need $26 trillion in infrastructure investment,” he said.

Speaking on the occasion, Dr. P.K. Mishra, Additional Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister, said that while reducing losses to infrastructure is one of the specific targets identified under the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (SFDRR), 2015-2030, it is also key to achieving other targets identified under the SFDRR. “We cannot reduce the number of deaths, reduce the number of affected people, or reduce economic losses from disasters if our infrastructure is damaged and its functionality disrupted by disasters,” he said.