The Langa Bridge between Shamator Headquarter and Chessore sub-division was washed away by flash flood on April 20.
Morung Express News
Kohima | May 10
In two major pre-monsoon events, Nagaland state has lost an economy that is estimated over 230 crore. These are estimates drawn from the incidents in Peren on March 23 and Shamator on the night of April 19 to early morning of April 20. In Peren district, the actual loss is estimated to be more than 50 crore and 180 crore in Shamator district.
Speaking on the sidelines of the NSDMA press conference, Joint CEO of Nagaland State Disaster Management Authority (NSDMA), Johnny Ruangmei said that the March 23 pre-monsoon heat incident which severely affected Tening and Athibung Area in Peren district, the NSDMA relief as per the norm of assistance (which is still awaited) comes up to about 4.8 crore.
However, he said, “if you look at the actual loss from the March 23 incident that incurred at Peren, the actual cost of the damage or economic loss to the community or the state will come up to more than 50 crores.” During the incident, many houses were taken down and roads were disrupted with cases of returning polling officers being trapped due to road block.
In Shamator district, as a result of the hailstorm and heavy precipitation on the 19th late night and 20th early morning, he said, “if you really look at it, the state has lost an economy estimated to be more than 180 crores.”
“Quite many of the decision makers in the countries do not realise the correlation of disaster event and economic loss”, he remarked while underscoring the importance in this regard. This year, he informed that the NSDMA is compiling all the damage report, and the assistance that need to be given as per the norm.
With the frequency and the increase of extreme weather, he further highlighted the NSDMA slogan that says, “We only hope for the best but we are always prepared for the worst.”
Referring to the damage in Shamator district in just a matter of 5 hours, he pointed out that, “the period is not even half a day and it has caused us so much of economic loss.”
Towards this end, he also underscored that, “in every developmental work that we do, be it road and bridges building, be it urban development or be it individual home buildings, if we have the philosophy of incorporating the concept of disaster risk reduction in all our developmental activities, we will all stand together.”
He also observed that most of the construction especially the old structures have not been built in with disaster risk reduction technologies. However, he highlighted that new infrastructure such as the Medical College has incorporated it.
He emphasized that this is the only reliable, sustainable and resilient way. Stating that it is for the safety of humanity, he further asserted that, “disaster management is not somebody's job but everybody's job.”
