A sudden cloudburst on August 5, 2025 triggered a devastating flash flood in Dharali, Uttarakhand in the Himalayas, destroying homes and killing at least five people, with nearly 100 missing. Rescue operations are still underway amid heavy rainfall and inaccessible terrain. Likewise, torrential rain in July 2025, damaged hydropower dams and a vital trade bridge with China, disrupting power and cross-border trade worth $724 million annually. Climate experts warn that climate-driven extreme weather is reshaping risk landscapes, demanding smarter infrastructure planning.
This year, at the International Conference on Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (ICDRI) 2025 in Nice, France, PM Modi cited several recent disasters like g Cyclone Remal impacting India & Bangladesh in May 2024, Hurricane Beryl in Caribbeans, Typhoon Yagi in Southeast Asia and many more, which calls for the urgent need for resilient infrastructure. These events highlight how extreme weather and fragile terrain pose persistent threats to infrastructure, livelihoods worldwide and more so in global south as vulnerabilities are highly concentrated. Therefore, resilience is no longer optional rather it is a shared global responsibility.
In these many months, we have seen nature’s fury test the limits of our infrastructure and our preparedness. Each of these events was in different geographies, yet united in one message i.e importance of robust infrastructure to withstand disasters. That is why CDRI is no longer a choice rather it is a necessity. It offers the knowledge sharing partnerships and global standards needed to ensure that when disasters strike, our roads, bridges, power lines, hospitals, and communication networks must not collapse. They must endure, adapt and continue to serve the people who depend on them.
Just a few months ago, Namibia formally joined the CDRI during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s landmark state visit, signing a letter of acceptance while exchanging key MoUs in the realm of health and entrepreneurship. This was a commitment towards a safer, more resilient future. The African Union Commission (AUC) also officially joined the CDRI on June 5, 2025, during a high-level event at the India High Commission in Geneva. And now over 20 African nations expressing interest in joining, the continent is sending a clear message: it is ready to lead in climate-ready development.
It must be noted that Africa is one of the most climate-vulnerable continents in the world. From prolonged droughts in the Horn of Africa to devastating floods in West and Southern Africa, extreme weather events are already eroding livelihoods, damaging infrastructure, and reversing years of development gains. But these impacts are not simply the work of nature but also the result of how risk, vulnerability, and exposure intersect. Infact, disaster is shaped by three interconnected factors: risk, vulnerability, and exposure. Risk is the probability of a hazard occurring — a cyclone, flood, drought, or earthquake. Vulnerability is the weakness of our systems, infrastructure, and communities in the face of that hazard. Exposure is how many people, assets, and essential services are in the hazard’s path. When high risk collides with high vulnerability and high exposure, the result is devastation.
And while this is a universal truth, the burden is not equally shared. Compared to the Global North, the Global South faces high risk of climate change because of its vulnerable populations, under-designed infrastructure and limited resources to recover. Vulnerability is also high because much of the aging infrastructure which are built to withstand extreme climate events like stronger storms, unpredictable rainfall, rising sea levels and longer droughts. Exposure is growing as cities expand into floodplains, coastal zones, and fragile ecosystems. These three factors, if left unaddressed, turn natural hazards into human tragedies. And hence, these vulnerabilities make resilient infrastructure not a luxury, but a lifeline. And in this context, CDRI directly addresses this equation. By promoting resilient design standards, sharing expertise, and supporting planning, it can keep critical services out of high-risk zones. Thus, CDRI can reduces vulnerability and manages exposure before a disaster strikes. It shifts the focus from reacting after destruction to preparing so that destruction is minimized.
But in today’s geopolitics, resilience is not just a national effort rather it is also local and transnational. This is where city-to-city diplomacy comes in. China, under its Green Belt and Road Initiative, has been linking cities which act as nodes to the transnational networks. While this builds influence, it can also deepen dependencies.
India working through CDRI, can also offer alternative to city to city diplomacy. Imagine African and Asian cities collaborating on flood-proof drainage systems, earthquake-resistant public buildings, and climate-resilient power grids. Such cooperation would not only strengthen physical infrastructure but also build trust, capacity, and shared standards among local governments. In this process, India can partner with Japan as it has great experience in engineering for disaster resilient infrastructure. In this way, CDRI becomes both a technical platform to tackle risk, vulnerability, and exposure, and a diplomatic bridge connecting cities and communities committed to a safer, more sustainable future. Through, CDRI India can set new global benchmarks for resilient, transparent, and sustainable infrastructure which will safeguards sovereignty while delivering real climate security. It calls for urgent action with concrete steps such as creating a global data hub to map risks, vulnerabilities, and exposure; strengthening infrastructure and governance systems; and reducing exposure by planning our cities, services, and investments away from high-risk zones. By doing so, we can dramatically cut the impacts of disasters, even as climate threats continue to grow.
Disclaimer
Views expressed above are the author’s own.
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