Discuss about the Disasters and Emergencies for Earthquakes and Floods.
A disaster refers to a situation which occurs and results to disruptions of the normal activities, hence causing damage to the affected people. On the other hand, an emergency occurs as a result of a disaster. It is a state where by normalcy is disrupted to avert or take care of an on already existing disaster. Recently the world is faced with numerous disasters and hazards that are posing threats to human life, and country’s development(Quaranntel, 2008). This paper will address the causes of emergency and disaster situations and identify resources and strategies that could be utilized to reduce and manage the risks associated with these conditions.
Disasters are caused by either natural causes or human factors. Natural factors are beyond human control. Examples of natural factors which are disastrous are earthquakes, floods, hurricanes among others. Examples of natural disasters that have struck the world are the tsunami that struck Japan on March 2011 and spread through the Pacific and the Katrina hurricanes that caused the most damage in the US. The Boxing Day earthquake in Sumatra, Indonesia which resulted in strong water waves (tsunami) that left more than 230,000 people dead, and destroyed millions of properties and people livelihoods in 10 countries. A natural disaster is beyond human control, and in most cases, it’s very hard to control, since there may be no signs of the disaster striking(Blaikie, 2003).
On the other hand, there are other disasters which are caused by human activities, for instances fires, which can result from oil spillage. Also, there are disasters resulting from environmental degradation. For example, droughts and famine which result to the death of many. Environmental degradation has as well greatly contributed to climatic changes, and as a result, most countries are already feeling the impacts of global warming, which are causing health and ecological disasters as was witnessed in 2003 in the European heat wave which killed thousands of people (Wilson, 2010).
Emergencies are as a result of primary effects of disasters. It’s in an attempt to avert the disaster from more damage. Either after it has already stricken or before it even strikes in case it shows signs of occurring. A primary disaster, for instance, is an emergency medical attention to several people injured during a mudslide or earthquakes or even from the fire. Secondary emergencies, on the other hand, are not directly linked to the disaster though they result from the extreme effects of disasters. For instance, a mudslide that can lead to breakage of sewers and hence disease outbreak which calls for emergency actions(Schepher-Pines, 2005).
As a result of the numerous changes taking place worldwide, many nations have resolved to form a framework for addressing the disasters and the arising emergencies. Since the year 2004when a great tsunami struck Asia, the nations realized the need to have effective strategies in place in case a disaster occurs, especially with the unpredictable nature of disasters. As a result, there is increased international cooperation because disasters know no borders. Countries have partnered to form multilateral and bilateral firm partnership as a strategy to reduce risks caused by emergencies as well as by the natural or human-related disasters. Many global countries have resolved into integrating the disaster reduction initiatives with their MDGs. There has also been a rise in the setting up of regional platforms to address the challenge of disasters and emergencies both at regional and at the international levels(McEntire, 2000).
Countries have resolved into holistic strategies of dealing with the disaster challenges. There is, for instance, the Hyogo Framework for Action (2005-2015), formed in the year 2015, by the World Conference on Disaster Reduction. The framework aimed at strengthening the global goals of development and the disasters and risk reduction strategies. The framework has three main strategic goals;
Additionally, there is also the Gleneagles 2005 summit, which is a strategy in which the countries who are members of the G-8 commit themselves to offer all possible support to countries prone to disasters. There are also driven by the desire and motive of sharing information and knowledge regarding hazards and risk management, giving warnings to areas which are susceptible to disasters. The G-8 countries work hand in hand with the World Bank and the UN, as well as with all the other willing development banks and the developing nations, to help address the issue of risk management. The Hyogo Framework for Action and the G-8 are existing platforms with a driving, and of reducing occurrences of emergencies, they encourage bilateral and multilateral partnership, also advocate for regional countries community-based preparedness and efficient, responsive plans in efforts to mobilize the community to have effective responses to disasters(Dynes, 1994). Additionally, still on disasters reduction efforts, the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (ISDR) is undergoing numerous to act as a strategic tool for implementing the Hyogo Framework for Action to be used by all the stakeholders, both the UN and non-UN contributors and through an efficient building of infrastructure and housing stocks. It’s not possible.
The Kyoto Protocol Climate Conference held in 1997 came up with plans for reducing risks caused by climatic changes resulting from industrial activities in developed countries. The countries developed an overall framework for cutting greenhouse gases emissions. The US promised to stabilize its emissions while the European Union promised a 15% decrease. During the conference, the agreed framework would help reduce greenhouse gas emissions(Aldrich & Meyer, 2015).
Disaster management should be treated as a holistic process involving all the sectors of development. It calls for an active planning and broad investments, failure to which significant losses will be incurred if a disaster hits a country. Some disasters are manageable hence there should be a collective measure by the regions which are susceptible to certain disasters. Below are some strategies that countries can put in place to help reduce the risk of disasters and emergency occurrences.
Country level advocacy on risk reduction; the World Bank has a set up natural disaster hotspots known as the Global Risk Analysis, which will help identify the disasters susceptible regions and countries. This will help the countries being in prepared for the kind of disasters that can strike their region. If countries are aware of the imminent risks, they will be in a better position to put in place effective risk avoidance measures hence the occurrence of the disaster may be prevented or the impacts minimized. The World Bank in collaboration with other international bodies has come up with the several tools which help in risk management. What the countries should do is they should get the risk management tools and distribute them across their Ministries of Planning, Finance and Disaster Management; this will increase their level of preparedness towards disasters(Neumayer, 2007).
Country-level hazard risks and poverty assessment; to ensure that poverty implementation strategies are sustainable the government should consider incorporating hazard risk assessment and reduction strategies of the region. Hazard risk assessment policies incorporate the hazard mapping, protecting economic and social developments as well as activities from danger through incentivization alleviate poverty without managing risks, since no matter the developments a disaster can bring them down in a day(Neumayer, 2007). Countries should make use of existing poverty elimination strategies to measure the levels of risks and disasters vulnerability. Identification of poverty causes can help identify the specific disasters that recurrently affect the prone areas, and this will ease the risk reduction process as they are already known which disaster to deal with.
Sectorial risk management strategy; the impacts of a disaster impact negatively on all sectors. This, therefore, means that to overcome risks and disasters, countries should ensure they have specific strategies for all the sectors; this will help reduce the overall damage and losses incurred when a disaster strikes. These strategies include;
Human resource development; to successfully overcome risks it’s important to educate the general public of the various disasters that exists, especially the human-related disasters, many human-related disasters occurs as a result of lack of knowledge of the dangers that their activities can lead into. For example, great fires have been caused by oil spillages; this means that the government should come up with strategies for educating the citizen about disasters. Also, the public should be informed about the disasters that the country is vulnerable to, enlightening them on precautionary measures as well as the best reactions they should turn to in case of emergence of the strike. It’s important to alert people on how they should react to fire, floods, earthquakes and other disasters in case they strike. This strategy can help reduce losses and reduce the chances of risk occurrences. Risk management should be introduced in the learning institutions(Maskrey, 2009).
Medical education and safety of health facilities; to take care of emergencies in case disasters occur calls for proper strategy inception in the medical sector. Medical practitioners, for example, should be trained on how to handle mass casualties. Managing the vast number of causalities also means that three should go through preparedness to be able to accommodate a large number of disaster victims. It, therefore, means that all the national government should strategically ensure that their medical facilities can handle large masses of casualties in case of a disaster. The Government should as well consider restructuring the health facilities infrastructure to suit the needs of disaster victim if a disaster occurs. This will also help reduce secondary effects of emergency in case an outbreak occurs. The facilities should be strategically built in a way that outbreaks are not easily spread within the hospital premises(Mileti, 1992).
Public management capacities and administration enhancement; the Federal government as well as the local civil services like the municipal council play critical role in the creation and implementation of risk reduction strategies. Countries should, therefore, come up with disaster and risk refresher training programs towards the federal officers and the civil service. This will help increase their preparedness to disasters as well as provide them with knowledge of how to prevent risks from occurring. Informing them of the countries vulnerabilities to risks and disasters is also an important strategy of risk reduction and management. The national training policy of every country should strategize on achieving this as part of the public management and administration enactment strategy.The government must priotize provision of adequate capacities in the public management training as there will be an increase in disasters with the increase in population, the higher rates of urbanization, increased environmental degradation, climatic changes among others (Korstanje, 2011).
Strengthening decentralization; three local communities and the local governments are responsible for handling emergencies brought up by impending risks and disasters. Their disaster management capabilities significantly affect the extents of damages caused by the risks(Korstanje M. E., 2001). To prevent risks from resulting into disasters, the government should come up with risk adoption and development strategies during the initial planning of the socioeconomic programs of development. Local governments should be given the capacities needed to empower the people on matters of disaster vulnerabilities, and on the various ways of reducing the occurrence of risks(Paul, 2003).
Capacity enhancement to the vulnerable groups; when a disaster strikes vulnerable groups is affected most. These calls for a need to ensure risks are reduced on them by all means, the governments and the international group should collectively develop strategies acts as risk mitigation tools to enable the poor, as well as the vulnerable groups, reduce the risk occurrence. There should also be appropriate strategies to assist the post-disaster communities to get back to their lives and offer a quick response to the disasters to reduce the risk of secondary emergencies occurrences. For example, if an area is affected by floods the government should have appropriate strategies put in place to avoid disease outbreaks(Bankoff, 2004,).
Strengthening the hydro-meteorological services; there are several disasters which arise as result of climatic and non-climatic hazards. The government should ensure to put in place appropriate strategies to learn of the possible disasters and provide a relevant warning to the people. For example, if mass rainfall is expected which might result to flooding the government should provide a warning to the people living in sloppy and flat areas which may suffer the consequences of the floods(Susanna M. Hoffman, 2002). This will lead to increased levels of preparedness among the people. This, therefore, calls for setting up of climatic risk management strategies which should long term. Vulnerable regions should work in collaboration with the Environmentally and Socially Sustainable Development (ESSD) and country teams to develop a framework that will help the country mainstream adaptation means to climate variability and climatic changes(Alexander, 2002).
In conclusion, it’s evident that many disasters are facing the world today, it, therefore, calls for a common measure to prevent the occurrence of disasters since some are manageable, and reduce risks of those that are not. The international and regional bodies have come up with frameworks and planned to help face these challenges. If these disasters and risks are to be effectively managed, the strategies employed must be collective. At the international level countries in the same region must collectively strategize on how to manage and reduce risks. Also within the country, the government must involve all parties to fight this epidemic together. No one developmental sector can fight disasters on its own. Strategies to help reduce risks and disaster occurrences have also been identified, and it’s worth noting the list is not exhaustive of all possible strategies.
References
Aldrich, D. P., & Meyer, M. A. (2015). “Social Capital and Community Resilience. American Behavioral Scientis, 254-269.
Alexander, D. (2002). Principles of Emergency planning and Management,. Oxford: Principles of Emergency planning and Management, .
Bankoff, G. G. (2004,). Mapping Vulnerability: Disasters, Development and People,. Routledge, : ISBN 978-1853839641.
Blaikie, P. C. (2003). At Risk Natural hazards, people’s vulnerability and disasters, . Wiltshire: Routledge.
Dynes, R. (1994). Community Emergency Planning: False Assumptions and Inappropriate Analogies. International Journal of Mass Emergencies and Disasters, 141-158.
Korstanje, M. (2011). “The Scientific Sensationalism: short commentaries along with scientific risk perception”. E Journalist, 10.
Korstanje, M. E. (2001). “Swine Flu in Buenos Aires: Beyond the Principle of Resilience. International Journal of Disaster Resilience in the Built Environment, 59–73.
Maskrey, A. (2009). Disaster Mitigation: A Community-Based Approach. OXFORD: Oxfam.
McEntire, D. (2000). Sustainability or invunerable development? Proposals for the Current shift in Paradigms. Australian Journal of Emergency Management, 58-61.
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Neumayer, E. a. (2007). ‘The gendered nature of natural disastersL the impact of catastrophic events on the gender gap in making disaster risk reduction gender-sensitive: policy and practical guidelines life expectancy 1981-2002’. Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 551-566.
Paul, B. K. ( 2003). “Public Response to Tornado Warnings: a comparative Study of the May 04, 2003 Tornadoes in Kansas, Missouri and Tennessee”. Quick Response Research Report, no 165, Natural Hazard Cent. Oxford: University of Colorado.
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