Disasters and Development ……. A continuation.

       

                Our second interest is in disaster and development. Well this is one of the strongest relationship so far with a linkage that is hard to miss. For one disasters can both destroy development projects and create opportunities and the fact that development can in its self bring about a increase and decrease in vulnerability. In the history of disaster management you come across an attitude of disasters being acts of god and this had the constricting effects that meant development was not made in a way that ensured they mitigate the effects of disaster management.  This resulted to the reactionary approach of meeting needs and recovery efforts. With the growing research it’s now clear more can be done before and in this case development takes the stage. They are various relationships and arguments that tie disasters and development. They are,

1. Disasters set back development programs and question or destroy years of development.
2. Development programs increase the vulnerability of a community.
3. Rebuilding after a disaster gives opportunities for development initiatives and finally
4. Development initiatives can be designed to increase the safety of a community and reduce the adverse effects of a disaster.

        This brings in the view that public policy plays a role and decision makers must take into account this relationship. With this in light that development needs institutional planning and structures to facilitate economic growth. Disasters can have a devastating effect on long term goals like Kenya’s Vision 2030. They can set it back and since some are unpredictable it could happen over and over again. This means priorities will change to meet the threat to their goals. Where support is needed then the UN and other aid organizations and NGOs can come in. According to the manual am following lets now take a look at the impact of disasters on development programs.

Benson Mutahi Githaiga

Disaster Management Enthusiast

References

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

 http://www.un-spider.org/about-us/news/en/6627/2013-04-25t154700/odi-report-disaster-risk-management-and-development

http://www.google.co.ke/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&ved=0CDsQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.col.org%2FSiteCollectionDocuments%2FDisaster_Management_version_1.0.pdf&ei=TU0fUu2pCcPD7AaN5YCwBw&usg=AFQjCNFTu0x4d83emTdP7PeqNce5_tocqw&bvm=bv.51495398,d.ZGU

http://www.google.co.ke/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=5&cad=rja&ved=0CFkQFjAE&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.gobookee.net%2Fintroduction-to-disaster-management%2F&ei=TU0fUu2pCcPD7AaN5YCwBw&usg=AFQjCNGfJUQc_bdnzhgRaoFoKkVLME69bw&bvm=bv.51495398,d.ZGU

Disasters and Infrastructure

            

       There is most certainly a relationship between various elements to disasters. Lets first look at disasters mitigation and infrastructure. According to ESCAP,1995. Asian and the Pacific Report on Natural Hazards and Natural Disaster Reduction. There is a significant reduction in loss of life from what then was an annual average of 100,000 during the past 50years then to 41,000 persons during the past 15years and this progress is tied to infrastructure development. Investment in disaster management infrastructure generally falls into,
1. Investment in infrastructure to support sustainable socioeconomic development.
2. Investment in infrastructure for reconstruction and recovery.

picture of viterbi.usc.edu

Obviously some considerations must be taken. These are,

A. Operations. This means operations are able to continue in the event of a disaster. Backup generators and communication tools are among the most crucial. It also means that essential goods need to be backed up in case of a disaster. Medical supplies are a great example.

B. Critical information and communication.

This to ensure that critical information is backed up and that the information is easily accessible. It can be information on employees, financial information and customer data for example.

C. Infrastructure planning. This elements need that the planning to have a foresight and thus it can best be done when the conceptualisation of the projects to properly address natural mitigation needs. The design should take into account the prevailing hazards and thus methods that can be used in the infrastructure planning to prevent, minimize the effects of events prevalent in their jurisdiction. For example people living in Nyando in Western Kenya should always build their
facilities and homes in a site that ensure that the effects of flooding are not adverse. After the site then the designs should have structural systems that minimize the effects of the event. Asian engineers for example have been building structures that take into account the likely hood of earthquakes using construction materials that fit their needs and working with architects to ensure the design is safer than conventional structures.

D. Mitigation Activities at Home.

 This comes as a bolster in my opinion to infrastructure planning only that it now comes down to a domestic level. Through home improvement and initial planning of the house a family can become safer and able to survive a disaster. Stronger roofs can for one minimize the effects of strong winds and a safe room can mean life or death to a family or community. In the wider scope of things it would be important to ensure that homes build in these areas are by law required to be of a set safety standards meaning building codes must be created to meet this requirements. They are challenges to these activities especially in rural Africa and in slums.

E. Insurance.  This ensures that all valuables are insured against the hazards that can affect them.

blog.fema.gov

Benson Mutahi Githaiga
Disaster Management Enthusiast

References

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

http://www.google.co.ke/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&ved=0CDsQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.col.org%2FSiteCollectionDocuments%2FDisaster_Management_version_1.0.pdf&ei=TU0fUu2pCcPD7AaN5YCwBw&usg=AFQjCNFTu0x4d83emTdP7PeqNce5_tocqw&bvm=bv.51495398,d.ZGU

http://www.google.co.ke/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=5&cad=rja&ved=0CFkQFjAE&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.gobookee.net%2Fintroduction-to-disaster-management%2F&ei=TU0fUu2pCcPD7AaN5YCwBw&usg=AFQjCNGfJUQc_bdnzhgRaoFoKkVLME69bw&bvm=bv.51495398,d.ZGU

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 

http://www.google.co.ke/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&ved=0CDsQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.col.org%2FSiteCollectionDocuments%2FDisaster_Management_version_1.0.pdf&ei=TU0fUu2pCcPD7AaN5YCwBw&usg=AFQjCNFTu0x4d83emTdP7PeqNce5_tocqw&bvm=bv.51495398,d.ZGU

Disaster Management Cycle.Mitigation

        
                We are now done with the introduction and will move on to learn the disaster management cycle. This cycle may have been used in the West Gate terror attack of which they are numerous lessons to be learned by disaster management professionals’ world wide and more so by the Kenyan government. Let’s look at the first thing the Kenyan government should have done.

                                                                       Mitigation

                       Disaster Management is to me the ultimate demonstration of leadership, efficiency and responsiveness. Disasters show the cracks in a system and filling them can mean an overhaul of the entire system. This is especially clear since collaboration is needed to manage disasters. The collaborations are both internal and external requiring a coordinated and organized effort to mitigate, prepare, respond and recover from situations of emergency and their implications in the shortest possible time. At the end of this blog we need to have defined the various phases of the disaster cycle, explain the importance of disaster mitigation and explain how planning and design of infrastructure should take into account the vulnerability of communities. Finally we should describe disaster management can be integrated in public policy. The finally and holding great importance to Kenya, let’s first establish that disaster management is a cyclical process with phases following each other or taking place concurrently. This means that decisions must be timely in each phase with the result of which being better preparedness, better warnings, reduced vulnerability and even prevention of future disasters. The cycle is present to reduce or prevent disasters.

                           Mitigation clearly starts with public policy that addresses the causes or mitigates the effects of disasters on people, infrastructure and property. The mitigation and preparedness phases as improvements are made in anticipation of events. This means a community’s development goes a long way in disaster mitigation and preparedness. After these phases comes into action the disaster managers who respond immediately and get involved in the long term recovery phase..The diagram below demonstrates the Disaster Management Cycle.

Benson Mutahi Githaiga
Disaster Management Enthusiast