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Home Concept States Partners Resources Alerts User Zone DRR Talk- User Image Gallery Guest Book Maps Contact Us       State Contingency Plan                     Andhra Pradesh Andhra Pradesh is the most Disaster prone area in terms of drought, floods, cyclones and fire. It is the fifth largest state in India, in terms of both population and area. Spread over 2.75 lakh sq km, it comprises 8.4 per cent of the country's total geographic area. Andhra Pradesh is situated in a tropical region between the latitudes 13 degrees to 20 degrees North and the longitudes 77 degrees to 85 degrees East. AP has 23 districts, 79 revenue divisions and 1123 mandals. There are 264 towns and 28,000 villages of which 1414 villages are not habited. The state has a long coast line (Bay of Bengal) stretching approximately 1,030 km, and an equally long history of cyclones of varying intensity over the past 100 years. Large segments of the state population are vulnerable to the recurring disasters (cyclones and floods). It is battered by at least one cyclone per year. The coastline districts are normally affected by cyclones and floods, whereas the western and northern parts of Andhra Pradesh often experience severe drought conditions. Emergency Contingency Palnning - Andhra Pradesh 2007 - Summary Results Gender Profile - Andhra Pradhesh Oxfam Partners Male Female 152 87       Staff Structure-Analysis Field level 97 Coordination level 73 Admin level 51 Director level 18 Total Staff 239       Analysis   No. of Staff experienced in Emergency Total Staff 102 239       Women workers experienced in disasters Total women staff 25 87       Experience of Response No. of Organisations 0 to 1 time 2 2 to 4 times 6 5 to 7 times 4 8 and more times 2 Oxfam’s Response History: Some of the response is direct intervention by Oxfam while remaining is through various partners working in the area. OGB Hyderabad office responded to all the major disasters occurred in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka states. During these disasters Oxfam directly and through partners responded in various sectors. Cyclones in the year – 1980, 1984, 1986, 1990, 1996 including 1977 Super Cyclone in Diviseema, 2003: Cyclone in Krishna, East Godavarai, Guntur and West Godavari districts in partnership with Five NGO partners Floods in the year - 2000 Floods in Hyderabad, 2005; Floods in West Godavari, East Godavari & Krishna Districts, Tsunami - 2004 & 2005, Oxfam did not worked directly but worked with Krishna and Visakha district administrations for NGO coordination and integration of disaster risk reduction in Tsunami response. Partners’ Response History: - Disasters: Partner organizations have experience of responding to Cyclone, Floods, Tsunami and one organisation has responded to the industrial disaster. - Experience of response: There are few organizations which are engaged in responding to disasters since 10 years. Few of them have started to respond recently. Following pie chart gives information about the experience (How many times the organisation has responded in past) of responding to the disasters. sds Interactive Andhra Pradesh Map Courtesy : Google Need for Disaster Risk Reduction Initiatives Presently, there’s no mechanism to deal with the situation if a major natural disaster or a major incident occurs in the State. The government’s intention is to create a dedicated body that will assess, plan, and implement vital aspects of disaster management (prevention, mitigation, preparedness and response) ensuring a unified command, control and coordination structure for disaster management by integrating different government agencies, besides better coordination with Central government in case of any calamity. Preeti Sudan – Commissioner for Disaster Management, Govt. of Andhra Pradesh The Hindu - Online edition Tuesday, Jul 15, 2008   Note: Analysis based on the data provided by 13 partner organizations: ACTION, ARTIC, ASDS, CJWS, CPF, DFYWA, HCHW, MARI, RRS, SAMSKAR, SANGHMITRA, SIDUR, SAKTI.   Total staff with these 13 partner organizations is 239. There are 87 women (36%) and 152 men (64%). The data indicates that almost 102 staff members have experience of working in the disaster situation. This is 42% of the total staff. The experience varies as per the organization as well as the functional level of the staff members.   Early warning system in the operational areas of partners: Almost all the partners get the information of early warning from Radio, Television and Government official. VHF communication centre at Balusuthippa Village was established by ACTION in 1997 in collaboration with FAO and fisheries department. This communication centre disseminates the information to the fishing community those who are on fishing in the sea about thirty kilometres on cyclone warnings. The organizations are also engaged in enhancing capacities of Task Force Teams for dissemination of the information about early warning. There are 100 digital cyclone warning dissemination stations (DCWDS) in 100 coastal mandals by IMD. High frequency police wireless communication system was set up at Vishakapatnam. One Doppler Radar Cyclone Warning centre is located at Machalipatnam. There are various HAM radio sets operating in the coastal villages for disseminating early warning of cyclones. Wireless set to each of the gram Panchayats and Deployment of 25 satellite telephones are allocated for the nine coastal districts in the State and Khammam. With this latest system in place, others like coast guards play important role in early warning for cyclone. The information about cyclone is disseminated through newspaper, internet site, coastal collectors, and relief commissioner at least 24 – 48 hours earlier. Use of Sphere Standards: The data indicates that five out of 14 organizations have knowledge about Sphere standards. Remaining nine organizations have not yet oriented with it. It is also important to note that none of the organisation has put Sphere in practice during emergency response. The response history of the partners indicate that 13 organizations have provided food items, nine organizations have been involved in water, sanitation and health during disaster response.   Networks and Other NGOs: Andhra Pradesh has good mechanism / platform for coordination amongst NGOs in case of disaster mitigation. Donors Network at state level is one of such processes. They have a disaster management group. This initiative is led by Oxfam GB in Hyderabad. This group meets frequently after disaster, carry out coordinated / joint rapid assessments, and share information with each other. This has helped in avoiding duplication and in coordinated response. Latest in 2006 floods also, Oxfam GB facilitated this group and the process. The dialogue with partners indicates that CADME has played an important role in enhancing community based disaster preparedness. There are some other networks like SAGID, Disaster Preparedness Network operating at grassroots. Apart from Oxfam there are many International organizations working in AP. Most of them are part of donors’ network. They are - Action Aid, Agha Khan Development Network, Aide et action, Bill Gates Foundation, Bread for the World in India, CARDAID, Caritas, CASA, CCF, Centre for World Solidarity, Christian Aid, Concern World India, CRS, DFID, Diakonie Emergency Aid (DEA), German Agro Action, Global Alliances, International Labour Organisation, Leonard Cheshire International, Plan International, Save Children Fund, UNICEF, World Vision   Sector wise analysis of partners response history Scenario - Scale No Disaster Vulnerable Areas Ranking 5=High, 1 = Low Potential Impact 1 Cyclone Warangal, Khammam, Wisakapatanam, Vizagnagaram, East Godawari, West Godavari, Krishna, Guntur, Prakasam, Nellore 5 Coastal Belt is the most vulnerable Originating in the Bay of Bengal, the cyclone makes inroads almost 100 kms inland Main losses are human loss, loss of cattle, damages to agricultural lands, infrastructures, loss of livelihood, and subsequent migration. Restoration of Infrastructural loss takes a long time Post Event, Public health related hazards are major concern. 2 Drought West Godavari, Ananthpur,   5 90% of crop land are vulnerable Cattle distress sales are common Deaths due to Hunger and Farmer Suicides School dropout rates rise Instances of flesh trade Alternate Employment initiatives and migration Drought of the year 2005 No cultivation in almost 90% agriculture land and 15000 cattle’s were sold out. Almost 472 farmers committed suicides in the past 5 years 4 Hunger deaths (1998 and 2005) in Ananthpur district. Children dropped out from school mostly due to migration of their families. 50000 people suffer from malnutrition and 770 women and girls trafficked to Pune, Delhi and Bombay. 15000 agricultural workers started other alternative employment or small business like petty shops. 3 Floods Warangal, Khammam, Wisakapatanam, Vizagnagaram, East Godawari, West Godavari, Krishna, Guntur, Prakasam, Nellore 4 Major floods in 3-4 years cycle (till 2005) Successive flood in 2006 has offset the rhythm Tribal community – most vulnerable along with the non- tribals, agricultural labours, small and marginal farmers, fishermen and village artisans. Cyclonic rain precedes the flood most of the times. Inlands floods mainly occur due to heavy rainfall and subsequent release of water form various dams in Andhra Pradesh or from Maharashtra. 4 Fire Khammam, Wisakapatanam, Vizagnagaram, West Godavari, Krishna, Guntur, Prakasam, Nellore 3 Andhra Pradesh has 63,814 sqkm (23.2% of geographical area of AP) of land under various types of forest in almost all districts. About 10% people depend on these forests for their livelihoods in terms of fire wood, fruits, non forest produce, fodder, etc. In summer months due to high temperature and dryness (grass) in the forests, fires are becoming very common. 5 Industrial  blasts/ fires Visakapatanam, Vizagnagaram 2 Andhra Pradesh has many industrial areas. Important industry is chemical based industries. On 14 September 1997 there was a pre-dawn explosion at the liquified petroleum storage (LPG) facility of Hindustan Petroleum Corporation (HPCL) at Visakhapatnam. Thousands of people evacuated themselves people from nearby areas to safer places and remained there for several days where food and non-food relief materials had to be provided. Please note: The ranking of the disasters based on the perceptions of the participants in the workshops with CP partners on the scale of 1 (least) to 5 (high) on likelihood.

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