Mitigation ....."a continuation"

            It is not possible to have communities prepared for all the types of hazards and yet this is the ideal situation for mitigation to be successful in theory. Because you cannot pragmatically prepare for all forms of hazards then the best practices route is taken for the most likely scenario, meaning a nation with no history of earthquake activity should clearly not invest in earthquake mitigation and recovery plans. So of paramount importance is to find out what hazards are in your jurisdiction. There is a lot of sense in the statement "know thy enemy “and in mitigation this scared. Knowledge of what hazards are and their nature is crucial to mitigation. This brings in the aspect of vulnerability and its assessment and understanding social and economic areas to be affected.

www.marksanborn.com 

by Mark Sanborn

Mitigation Strategies
1.  Develop Disaster Resistant Economic Activities. For example using the right type of crops can        mitigate against effects of drought and crop failure that are serious hazards. In real life it can be provision of drought resistant crops to North Eastern Kenya where season can go by with it experiencing little to no rainfall. The same region can also be used for the next strategy.

2. Economic Diversification. North Eastern Kenya is dry and many live a nomadic life. Turning their efforts to livestock farming which makes them both stick to the nomadic life since it hardly ever rains and they are culturally and skill wise included to livestock rearing. Mitigation for them will involve a layer of changing life style and education to how else they can make money and not rely on their animals.

3. Adjusting Normal Development Plans. A great example here is construction of safer building in earthquake prone areas and alternative routes in areas that key to the nations well being or communities. The major contributors to the food the nation depends on for example should have at least two routes in case something damages one e.g a major landslide, flooding or other disasters.

Benson Mutahi Githaiga
Disaster Management Enthusiast

References

Emergency Management: the American Experience,1900-2010. ed. Claire B.Rubin 

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