Following the devastating flash floods in Nepal, former National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) adviser Safi Ahsan Rizvi emphasised the need to scale up India’s glacial lake risk mitigation programme and establish a 24/7 cross-border control room coordination with Nepal to prevent future disasters.

In a self-made video, Mr. Rizvi highlighted that similar incidents have been taking place for a long time in India and Nepal, emphasing that India has created a National GLOF Risk Mitigation Programme (NGRMP) to tackle such situations.

“The recent tragedy in Nepal was basically something that has been happening in the Indian Himalayas for a long time. But in the last 20 to 25 years, there have been seven or eight such disasters that have affected India. There are about four or five big ones that have affected Nepal. Now, how are we prepared in India for this?”

In India, the NDMA has created a National GLOF Risk Mitigation Programme (NGRMP). Expanding on the programme further, he said, “It’s a 150 crore programme for the four states and two union territories that are affected. So that kind of preparedness is something which takes time to build, but then that plan is already underway, and I’m sure it’ll be sped up.”

However, Mr. Rizvi said that the plan needs to be expedited to reduce the chances of risks.

ANI